Implications of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategies on Player and Team performance, and Retention in Professional Basketball Sport Organizations

This project investigates the associations of diversity, equity and inclusion strategies on athlete and team performance and retention in exclusively professional basketball sports organizations. It was hypothesized that sports organizations with a structured DE&I strategy allow players to perform optimally, increasing the chance of winning at the team level represented in basketball sports statistics. Also, an organization that creates, implements, and enforces a well thought out and highly regarded DE&I strategy can assist with attracting talent and retaining top players. This project will explore this relationship and analyse the findings by determining a “DE&I score” for all NBA teams and comparing scores to their relative performance. Teams with higher DE&I score are hypothesized to win more games.