Since the beginning of time, people have been unfairly treated with prejudice. This is discrimination and it has been a big problem in our world. Discrimination not only occurs in the workplace, schools and religion, but is also a problem in professional sports. While there are still many examples of discrimination in sport, there have been improvements in the areas of racial, gender and sexual orientation discrimination. For starters, for nearly 200 years in the United States, the nation was plagued by slavery. In 1865 slavery ended, but professional sports were on the rise and racism was a major problem. In 1946, there were no African American athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, or the National Football League; until Jackie Robinson, that is. The 29-year-old African American from Cairo, Georgia, became the first black major league professional baseball player. From the moment Jackie Robinson stepped onto a baseball diamond for the first time, until 30 years later in the 1980s, the percentage of black players in MLB skyrocketed. In the 1987 season, 28% of players in the major leagues were African American (Kahn). In addition to being one of the most notable figures in MLB history, Jackie excelled in nearly every sport in college, scoring in 4 of them (Salem Press 2336). Jackie Robinson may be the most influential figure in sports history, forever changing the landscape of racism. Another dramatic change that occurred along the lines of racism in sports occurred in the National Basketball Association, also called the NBA. In the 1940s there were no black players in the NBA, but in the 1980s 74% of professional basketball players... middle of paper... the main reason it is growing so quickly is because discrimination is decreased. Everyone can play, watch and support, without feeling excluded, and equality has become a must in all sports around the world. Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers, was recently banned for life by the league commissioner, Adam Silver, after making racist comments. In the 1950s, most people would have ignored it and not even cared, but now there is no place for such people in sports because league commissioners, players and fans generally do not tolerate such behavior . Discrimination in sport is a less frequent phenomenon nowadays, but unfortunately it still happens; That said, many improvements have been made to end racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination in professional athletics in the modern era.