‘IT’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF US’
Women are thriving as NBA assistant coaches
The WNBA tipped off its inaugural season with a threegame schedule nearly 24 years ago.
On that day, about 90 minutes before the Cleveland Rockers hosted the Houston Comets in a matchup featuring three future Hall of Fame players, reserve guard Jenny Boucek, who overcame daunting odds and made the team during an open tryout, summarized her emotions on what was about to transpire.
“I can’t imagine that there will be a more exciting day, maybe my wedding day,” said Boucek on June 21, 1997, from just outside her Gund Arena locker room. “I’m just going to try to soak it all in.”
Fast forward nearly a quarter of a century and Boucek is thriving in the NBA as one of the league’s eight female assistant coaches. Last month was Women’s History Month, and as we look at the future of women in the NBA, that future is bright.
Their duties are varied and fluid, but female assistants are playing integral roles with the San Antonio Spurs (Becky Hammon), Cleveland Cavaliers (Lindsay Gottlieb), Memphis Grizzlies (Sonia Raman), New Orleans Pelicans (Teresa Weatherspoon), Dallas Mavericks (Boucek), Sacramento Kings (Lindsey Harding), Toronto Raptors (Brittni Donaldson) and the Los Angeles Clippers (Natalie Nakase).
Their responsibilities include advance scouting, analyzing analytics, dissecting game film, developing strategies and working closely with players.
They cite a variety of reasons for the instant connection.
“This is a generation of players raised predominantly by women, and a lot of times, single women, strong women,” Boucek told USA TODAY Sports. “They haven’t blinked an eye
since Day 1.”
According to Raman, players just want to get better, whether the tutelage emanates from a man or a woman.
“If you can help them do that, they are really, really receptive to it,” Raman told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s a generation growing up with women’s basketball everywhere.
“Every guy on this team, they have friends who play in the women’s game.”
Gottlieb agrees, telling USA TODAY Sports, “the qualities that they want in their coaches transcend gender. They want to be pushed and made better.”
With so many female assistants now part of the NBA landscape, the next big question is when will an NBA team hire a woman as its head coach?
“It’s right in front of us. It’s going to happen,” basketball pioneer Nancy Lieberman, who was the first woman to coach an NBA G League team, told USA TODAY Sports during an interview last year.
Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri, whose team has women in key positions throughout the basketball staff, and Richard Lapchick, author of the detailed racial and gender report cards for sports leagues,
have also said
While Hammon, who started her NBA coaching career in 2014, seems to be on track to become the first female full-time NBA head coach, some of the NBA female assistants are focused on the present.
“I’m out of my comfort zone a little bit and I’m really loving that,” said Raman. “I’m more just trying to soak up as much information as I can, build relationships with everybody within the organization – with the players – and get better every day.”
“I
it’s on the horizon. definitely didn’t take this job as a means to a end,” said Gottlieb.
However, Gottlieb credits this opportunity with providing women the ability to choose coaching opportunities to pursue on all levels, leading both men and women.
“Is it the NBA? My goodness, that would be amazing! Is it the WNBA? Is it men’s or women’s college?” said Gottlieb.
“I think the doors are open simply because of this experience.”
The NBA’s doors are now open wider than ever for women looking to embark on a coaching career, and Raman feels that fact will be reflected in growing numbers during the next few years.
“I do think you are going to see exponential growth,” said Raman. “I don’t think internally it will be a big deal, and I think that’s what progress is.”
NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said the league in 2019 partnered with the National Basketball Coaches Association to create a deeper and more inclusive pool of coaching candidates.
Gottlieb understands this time of incredible opportunity and feels a sense of duty.
“I think it’s our responsibility to do our jobs extremely well so that people believe that women should be in the conversation in each and every search,” she said. “And then choose the best person.”
Boucek agrees.
“We don’t want to be a cause. We want to be a good coach – we want to be a contributor and add value to the franchise,” said Boucek, now in her fourth season with the Mavericks. “We don’t want this to be a gender thing in terms of receiving a job or an opportunity.”
“This is much bigger than us,” Weatherspoon told USA TODAY Sports. “While we are in, what are we doing to make sure that door opens completely for others to step in?” different