Grizzlies join the NBA’S female movement
The process of hiring the first female assistant coach in Memphis Grizzlies history really began to intensify about a month ago, and the emotions Niele Ivey felt evolved over time.
At first, when the team initially reached out, it was a shock. After an allamerican career at Notre Dame, after a couple seasons in the WNBA and after 12 years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame, the NBA wasn’t necessarily a goal.
But then Ivey’s surprise turned to gratitude and honor because, as she put it, “you never really know.” You never know when your moment will arrive.
And so now that it was here, right as recruiting season was picking up for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team, Ivey’s gratefulness morphed into pride and excitement.
The Grizzlies were approaching her because she’d earned this chance, a chance to spread her coaching wings in a way she never expected.
“I guess you never dream big enough,” Ivey said in an interview this week.
That lesson, more than the actual precedent Ivey set here in Memphis, is the best part about Jenkins’ decision to include a woman on his first assistant coaching staff.
Because whether it’s basketball or government or business, we’re long past the time where women shouldn’t be dreaming as big as anyone else.
We’re still not all the way there, of course. We’ve got female CEOS, but still
not enough. We've got female politicians, but still no female President. We've got female athletic directors and coaches, but still far fewer than men. And until recently, it almost seemed taboo for a woman to be coaching a man.
The NBA is, slowly but surely, leading the charge to change that trend.
The San Antonio Spurs spearheaded the cause when Gregg Popovich hired former WNBA star Becky Hammon to be on his staff in 2014. But this offseason, more than any other before it, cemented this as a bonafide movement of sorts.
There are now nine active female assistant coaches in the league, including Ivey, and several front office members.
Now, don't mistake progress for a mission accomplished. We're still waiting on the first female NBA head coach or general manager. But the more women that join the pipeline, the better their chances become. The more normal this will start to feel.
That's why this week, when the Grizzlies officially snagged Ivey from Notre Dame, resonated so much. She didn't know Jenkins, or have any connection to him, before last month. Jenkins, it seems, simply felt he needed a female on this staff.
It's the most refreshing aspect of these hires Jenkins made, even if it doesn't include the NBA coaching veteran you might expect helping out the youngest head coach in the league. It's a collection of people from so many walks of basketball life.
There's an assistant coach with extensive international experience (Nevin Spahija), an assistant coach with extensive G-league experience (former Memphis Hustle coach Brad Jones), a player development coach from the NBA (David Mcclure), a player development coach from the college ranks (former Ohio State star Scoonie Penn), and a holdover from the previous staff (Vitaly Potapenko).
And then, of course, there's Ivey, the lead assistant for one of the great women's college basketball programs in the country and the prime candidate to one day replace Hall of Fame Notre Dame head coach Muffet Mcgraw.
“When I actually saw the entire staff, I was just like, ‘Wow, this is awesome,'” Ivey said. “It's such diverse backgrounds with so many different skill sets, different experiences from so many different levels. I just think it's going to foster a culture of a lot of development and I think the team can be excited just to get so many different types of voices.”
And though she's never coached a male basketball player before, Ivey did help raise one.
Her son, Jaden, is a 3-star recruit in the 2020 class who recently committed to Purdue. He will play this season at La Lumiere, the Indiana powerhouse whose alumni include Jaren Jackson Jr. Ivey also mentioned this week one of Jaden's favorite players happens to be Ja Morant.
“To be honest,” Ivey said, “women just have a different perspective.”
It's exactly the point her mentor, Mcgraw, wanted to make at the women's Final Four back in April, which might actually be when the Grizzlies' search for their first female assistant coach really began, whether anyone involved knew it or not.
You probably recall the press conference because Mcgraw earned national headlines when she wondered aloud why there weren't more women in positions of power. She questioned why so many men coach women's basketball but so few women coach men's basketball. She reminded everyone that sports often provide the best platform to instigate change in our society.
“All these millions of girls who play sports across the country, they could come out every day, and we're teaching them some great things about life skills,” Mcgraw said. “But wouldn't it be great if we could teach them to watch how women lead?”
Ivey experienced the other end of that unplanned speech, and not just when Mcgraw returned to the coaches' locker room and her staff marveled at the courage it took to threaten basketball's status quo.
Because one month later, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that his goal was for the league to one day have more gender diversity in the officiating and coaching ranks.
And a couple months after that, the Grizzlies contacted Ivey and fulfilled a dream she never even knew she had.
“That comment opened the door and made people think,” Ivey said. “Sometimes you have to challenge people to make them think and make them think about giving women opportunities. I'm a woman of color who got an opportunity and I was amazed by it.”
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto