Racial Concordance Between NBA and MLB Players and Their Team Physicians

Background: Recent efforts aim to determine whether patient-provider race concordance improves health outcomes for minority patient populations. Patient-physician race discordance is uniquely elevated in professional athletics. Purpose: To evaluate racial concordance between rostered players and their respective team physicians in 2 major professional sports leagues in the United States—the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Publicly available data were collected in June of 2023 to identify NBA and MLB players and team physicians. The sex and reported or perceived race of the players and team physicians were determined by 2 independent observers who analyzed reported demographic data, photographs, and names of these individuals, with disagreements resolved by a third independent observer. Team physicians’ medical training, medical specialty, languages spoken, and years in practice were obtained using publicly available internet-based sources or by contacting the clinical staff directly. Results: In both the NBA and the MLB, there was a statistically significant difference in racial composition between players and team physicians ( P < .0001 for both). In addition, despite a high percentage (30.7%) of Hispanic/Latino players in the MLB, just 11.6% of MLB team physicians spoke Spanish, and >50% (18/30) of MLB organizations lacked a team physician who spoke Spanish. Conclusion: Substantial race discordance was found between professional athletes and head team physicians. Physicians more closely mirroring the patient populations that we treat—including professional athletes—may positively affect health care relationships and improve patient/provider barriers.