Dunking in a more diverse universe
Women landing more coaching, ref roles as NBA embraces equality
NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants more women employed throughout the league.
He’s getting his wish. In recent days, two significant moves were made, with Kristi Toliver being added to Washington’s staff of assistant coaches, and Chasity Melvin getting hired as an assistant coach with Charlotte’s G League affiliate in Greensboro, North Carolina.
And on Monday, two female referees were making regularseason debuts.
They’re all signs of progress. Few seem to notice, which also is not all bad.
Women are becoming a bigger part of the league now more than ever before. The appointments of Toliver and Melvin were not overlooked; it just no longer seems like such an unusual thing to bring a woman into an NBA club, probably because the likes of San Antonio assistant Becky Hammon, former Sacramento assistant Nancy Lieberman, Dallas assistant Jenny Boucek, Clippers G League assistant Natalie Nakase and Memphis analyst Nicki Gross took care
It speaks to our league, the diversity, the openness, the inclusion, and I’m proud to be part of that.”
James Borrego, the
of the first wave of trailblazing.
“I think it’s great and I think it’s great for the NBA,” said Charlotte’s James Borrego, the league’s first Hispanic fulltime coach. “It speaks to our league, the diversity, the openness, the inclusion, and I’m proud to be part of that, part of a league that’s open to that.
“I’ve been around Becky Hammon for a number of years. These are bright women that belong in our league.”
Certainly, there’s much more progress to be made, including in business offices around the league — as well as on the sidelines.
There’s never been a female NBA head coach, though Hammon — a longtime staffer in San Antonio, where Borrego was before taking the Charlotte job — seems on the cusp of breaking that glass ceiling.
Only three women have been hired as full-time NBA referees, though Natalie Sago and Ashley Moyer-Gleich will debut on Monday and are already highly respected by their peers.
Moyer-Gleich is part of the crew handling Indiana at Minnesota. Sago is working the Memphis at Utah game.
They join the likes of Dee Kantner, Violet Palmer, Brenda Pantoja and still-active Lauren Holtkamp as women to work regular-season games. Pantoja was a non-staff ref, and for now so are Sago and Moyer-Gleich.
Borrego expects the numbers of women in the league to increase.
“They’re here to stay,” Borrego said. “That’s not going anywhere. It’s only going to trend in that direction.”
G League changes
Over the next few weeks, more information will likely come out about the G League’s plan to offer $125,000 contracts to elite prospects who aren’t yet eligible for the NBA draft.
Many of the details remain unclear: who will get them, how they’ll get them and how many deals will be offered.
Another question is how players will be assigned to teams.
Answers could hopefully lie in the NBA’s past.
The last territorial pick in the NBA was in 1965, but that’s the road the G League needs to go down now. For a league that’s still looking to grow, imagine the possibilities of putting a hotly tipped player with plenty of potential near his hometown. It’ll generate interest, which the G League surely could use.