Race and ethnicity in the NBA

The composition of race and ethnicity in the National Basketball Association (NBA) has changed throughout the league's history.

[13] With the emergence of African American players by the 1960s, the NBA game was stylistically being played faster and above the rim.

At that time, African Americans believed they were limited by an unofficial league quota of four black players per team.

While a TIDES study found that the NBA was 18.3 percent white in the 2015–16 season, this number also included non-Americans, most notably Europeans.

[34] The number of NBA teams with non-white majority owners increased to three in September 2019 with the league approval of Taiwanese Canadian entrepreneur Joseph Tsai's purchase of Russian Mikhail Prokhorov's 51 percent share in the Brooklyn Nets.

[39] Timothy J. Piper examines how the NBA uses archival sports video in its advertising to give the impression that racial issues don't exist in the league, despite the fact that they do.

The NBA tried to revitalize its brand prior to 2007 as a result of issues like dwindling attendance and broadcast ratings.

In particular, it introduced a "business casual" attire policy for players in 2005 as part of its effort to distance itself from facets of hip-hop culture.

The league's efforts to solve its economic fall were tied to this clothing code, which was intended to redefine player uniforms for NBA commerce, according to then-NBA Commissioner David Stern.

The article also notes the NBA's 2007 advertising campaign, "Where Amazing Happens," which featured archival footage and signaled a change in the league's branding approach.

The goal of this campaign, which marked a change from prior ones, was to portray the NBA as varied but "raceless".