The year was 1999 when I earned my veritable “seat at the table.”
Back then, I was in my fifth season with the Miami Heat, serving in the sports media relations department. The franchise was on the verge of being awarded a WNBA team. This was a golden career moment; an opportunity to lead while learning from some of the very best in our industry. So I jumped at the chance.
As the Miami Sol’s director of operations, I became the face of the expansion organization but, more importantly, I was an “executive in training wheels.” I had some of the very best in the business fully supporting the Sol: our Heat general manager Randy Pfund; NBA Vice President Bill Sutton; Heat Chief Marketing Officer Michael McCullough; Heat President of Business Operations Eric Woolworth, Sol head coach Ron Rothstein and Heat President Pat Riley. Each was dedicated to the success of the Sol and, therefore, took extra time to share his knowledge and teach me the business of basketball. It was an amazing experience.
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Sol coach Ron Rothstein directs Debbie Black during a 2002 game at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Photo by: VICTOR BALDIZON / NBA / GETTY IMAGES
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The South Florida community loved the Sol. We were among the WNBA leaders in attendance and made a playoff appearance. But after three seasons, a change in the economic structure of WNBA franchises led to a very difficult decision. We ended our control of the Sol and gave the franchise back to the NBA.
I was effectively out of a job.
What good was my seat at the table if my first real enterprise ended in failure?
However, as Riley taught me, “In every adversity, there is a silver lining.”
Woolworth, my boss and mentor, offered me another golden opportunity: He made me his chief of staff. He believed in my talent and work ethic and made it clear that I demonstrated an ability to get the job done. What happened with the Sol had nothing to do with my performance and everything to do with timing, he reassured me.
“You’re bright, you’re committed and you’re a great leader,” he said. “When we have somebody that is succeeding at every step along the way, whether it’s a man or a woman, it’s irrelevant. When I look at someone like you, I just see an incredibly competent person who happens to be a woman.”
I never considered my gender as a weight to bear, but I understood that leadership positions in professional sports seemed to be few and far between for women at that time. Looking back, I can’t help but think about how different my career could have ended up without Eric’s encouragement and support. In essence, his belief in me helped me realize I had had a seat at the table all along.
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Diversity is not only necessary, it should be the norm and not the exception. Thankfully, we are getting there with the opportunities provided by leaders such as Eric, who hired women to run an NBA arena and head up player negotiations; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who shared the stage with a diverse lineup of executive women to kick off the NBA’s annual meetings in January 2016; and San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who hired one of the most brilliant basketball minds in Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. They know in order for industries to compete and excel in an increasingly global landscape, different voices, viewpoints and backgrounds are imperative. Diversity makes good business and coaching sense.
The NBA has always led the way. In the early 2000s, there were 13 women serving as vice presidents at the league office and 39 serving in the same capacity on the team level. As of the 2014-15 season, there are 45 at the league office and 82 at the team level.
I never considered my gender as a weight to bear, but I understood that leadership positions in professional sports seemed to be few and far between for women at that time.
Over that same time frame, NBA team values have increased more than 70 percent, the league shattered its all-time single-season attendance record, and it is now enjoying unprecedented corporate sponsorship success.
Moreover, Richard Lapchick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, stated in his Racial & Gender Report Card for 2014-15 that the NBA “more than understands that diversity and inclusion are business imperatives.” Out of the major North American sports leagues, the NBA scored the highest grade of B+ (88 points) in gender hiring practices.
Other diversity milestones reached during the 2014-15 season included the following:
■ Kathleen Behrens was promoted to the position of president of social responsibility and player programs, the first woman to ever hold the title of president in a league office.
■ At the team level, the NBA leads professional sports with four female team presidents and accomplished a 20-year high with 20.3 percent of all vice president positions held by women.
■ 24 percent of senior-level positions (director and above) were held by women.
During my tenure as general manager of AmericanAirlines Arena, I have had the honor of overseeing five NBA Finals series and three Miami Heat championship parades. To be sure, those were momentous occasions and amazing career highlights.
But just as important and just as impressive are the strides the Heat franchise has made to promote diversity at every level. Women hold 27 percent of vice president posts and 41 percent of senior level positions at The Heat Group. For us, it’s not unusual to see a woman serve as our lead counsel, head up our security department, lead our communications strategy, or create the look and feel of our annual uniform marketing campaigns.
Here, we never run out of seats. We just make the table bigger.
Kim Stone (Kstone@heat.com) is executive vice president of the Miami Heat and general manager of AmericanAirlines Arena. She was featured as part of SportsBusiness Journal’s annual Game Changers presentation in 2015.
