We think it's great that the NBA (and other leagues) are making strides in racial and gender diversity. But we think it's a little odd that their progress can apparently be charted in the same way one might grade a high school biology test. From the AP:

The NBA still leads the way in sports diversity. The NBA was again the only men's professional sports league to receive a combined "A" for race and gender in the annual report released Wednesday by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The league had slight decreases for blacks in front-office positions but is still the best among men's pro sports. Women made up 44 percent of professional employees at the league offices. The study shows 77 percent of the NBA players were black, 18 percent white, 3 percent Latino, 1 percent Asian and 1 percent "other." International players stayed steady at 18 percent. The report is based on information published in official team guides at the beginning of the 2009-10 season.

We can just imagine officials from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport looking at media guide pictures and saying, "Yep, looks like a woman. Yep, there's a white guy." And so on, as they check little boxes. Or maybe it's more complicated than that. The full report makes it seem like it could be.

In any event, we invite RandBallers to grade themselves on their commitment to race and gender diversity. How's everyone doing?

(By the way: Clearance Clarence was supposed to be in this spot, but the server is being extraordinarily slow right now and pictures are impossible to load. Without a context-free diagram, what is Clearance Clarence? Incomplete, that's what. Hopefull this will be resolved soon).