Home Court Advantage: An Analysis of Discrimination in the NBA

In the last two decades, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has made extensive efforts into expanding its reach outside of the North American market. Numerous attempt have been made by the league to spread the game of basketball into such areas as Europe, South America, and East Asia. As popularity for the sport grew, so did the potential for NBA teams to draft foreign talent. Indeed, the 1990’s and 2000’s saw an influx of foreign talent into the NBA. By the 2014-2015 season, there were a record 101 foreign players on opening day rosters, nearly five times as many as during the 1990-1991 season (21 players). This papers examines whether discrimination of foreign players exist via two value outcomes: salary and minutes per game. Based on an analysis of performance metrics, this paper found significant nationality effects on minutes per game, specifically that foreign players receive less playing time for commensurate performance. This paper did not find evidence to suggest salary or minute per game discrimination by race