A MATTER OF TIME
NBA will get female coach
To Adam Silver, the idea of a female head coach in the NBA is an inevitable step on a journey to a time when the gender of coaches is irrelevant. But for every Silver, there’s someone like Mike Francesa, preaching the day will never come.
Silver, though, is in a position to do something about the matter as commissioner and, although his reign is in its infancy by David Stern standards, he intends to work to make the league’s first female head coach among his signature achievements.
Saying there “definitely will be” a woman coaching an NBA team, Silver told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk, “I think it is on me to sort of ensure that it happens sooner rather than later.”
Silver, in an interview to promote the league and Leanin.org’s new campaign to raise genderequality awareness, also hopes to add more female game officials as the league increases its roster of refs by 25 per cent over the next three seasons. Lauren Holtkamp is the only woman officiating games, following in the footsteps of Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner.
During his WFAN show recently, Francesa made waves saying a woman has no shot at being a head coach and hiring a woman would be a “sad publicity stunt.”
“First of all, let me say that I disagree that there will not be a woman head coach in the NBA,” Silver said. “It is hard to say exactly when. There are three women currently in the pipeline, and I think like we have seen in all other aspects of life, while there are certain cases for example, the athletes that participate in the NBA, there are obvious physical difference between men and women and those differences are why we have a men’s league and a women’s league.
“But on the other hand when it comes to coaching, when there is absolutely no physical requirement, when it is not a function of how high you can jump or how strong you are, there is no physical litmus test to being a head coach in the league, there is absolutely no reason why a woman will not ascend to be a head coach in this league. We are very focused in on it.”
San Antonio’s Becky Hammon and Sacramento’s Nancy Lieberman are assistant coaches; Natalie Nakase is the Los Angeles Clippers’ assistant video co-ordinator.
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, who hired Hammon in August 2014, called Francesa’s comments “nonsense,” and Hammon recently turned down an offer to become the head coach of the University of Florida women’s team, preferring to focus on becoming the first female head coach in the NBA.
“I’m not here unless coach Pop kind of sees me as genderless,” Hammon said last year. “He sees me as a person who knows basketball. He didn’t care that I was a woman. What he cared about was, can I help the team?”
In 2015, after Hammon coached the Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League title, Popovich said he saw the matter of the first female head coach as “a societal sort of thing” and added he doesn’t see Hammon, a former WNBA player, as “the first female that-and-the-other.”
“In America, we are great at sticking our heads in the sand and being behind the rest of the world in a whole lot of areas. We think we are this big democratic, fair place. But you look at our world now, whether it’s gender-wise or racially or religiously, there’s all kinds of stuff that is not the way it’s supposed to be,” Popovich said.
“I think a female coaching a team these days has a lot to do with the people on the teams maturing as individuals, as members of a society understanding that it’s not about any of those things,” he said. “It’s about talent. It’s about respect. People like Becky over time will gain respect and people will understand that this is possible. It can happen. It’s like women getting the vote. Think about how long that took before change was made.”
There is absolutely no reason why a woman will not ascend to be a head coach in this league. We are very focused in on it. ADAM SILVER