Watching George Karl and Doc Rivers wave to each other after Tuesday night’s Orlando win over Milwaukee was classic. Seeing two coaches who hate each other?yes, they hate each other?having to look at each other and not shake hands was amazing.

Race has been the subject of many coaching decisions over the past few years. Every offseason of every sport I hear a coaching decision that is disputed by many because of the fact that a person who was in consideration for the job was not hired because of the color of his skin.

A guy like Marvin Lewis comes to mind. Lewis was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, but couldn’t get a head coaching job even if his life depended on it.

Now he is the “defensive head coach” alongside “offensive head coach” Steve Spurrier in Washington.

Seeing the Black College Association losing it after only one African-American coach was hired, even though their were 13 schools that needed to hire a new head coach, was another incident of coaches allegedly not getting jobs because of their color.

A couple of weeks ago, Nolan Richardson accused the media of not respecting him because he was having a bad season. He said that if he were a legendary white coach, the media would have let the season pass.

I see where Richardson is coming from?look at Joe Paterno. Penn State increasingly becomes lousier and lousier every year, but nobody says, “Fire good ol’ Joe Pa.”

And now we have George Karl shooting his mouth off about how there were other people who should have gotten the job in Orlando instead of Rivers, but because he was black, the Magic hired him.

Doc Rivers answered by basically calling Karl a bigot, and therefore an enmity was created between the two.

The question of racism in the coaching world must be answered. Are the owners, general managers and athletic directors racist, or are the better coaches not black?

Hmmmm?

A tough question, but it has an answer, and it’s not a corny answer like, “it’s a little bit of both.” I don’t care, I am not sitting on the fence, so here it is.

Racism is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as, “The notion that one’s own ethnic stock is superior.”

The fact that racism does not literally mean that the decision maker would hate a black person equates to the fact that the people who are deciding who the coaches will be are racist.

They believe that their ethnic stock is superior, and it may not even be apparent to them that they are racist.

It might be just a corrupted view you unknowingly take toward everyone; however it is still there.

I believe Richardson has a good point, even though he stated his point very bluntly. He was right?people like Joe Paterno are treated like legends and if they have an off-year, the media still credits them for having an outstanding career.

The belief that the best coaches are not black could possibly be true. Hey, who the hell knows?maybe the best coaches are white, and the respective decision-makers want the best for their team.

It is possible?

However, for a guy like Marvin Lewis not to be able to get a marquee job, and then you see Ron Zook?who was the defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints?get the job at Florida is quite questionable.

Who had the better defense?

Who had the better talent?

The Black Coaches Association submitted a list of 50 coaches who had good rsums to separate schools, and all were rejected except for Notre Dame’s selection of Tyrone Willingham.

And he was only their second choice.

Racism?

Yes.

Asad welcomes feedback at: [email protected].