To date, only the San Antonio Spurs (Becky Hammon) ad Sacramento Kings (Nancy Lieberman) have assistant coaches on their staff who are women. As well, Natalie Nakase of the LA Clippers is an assistant video coordinator with hopes of being an NBA coach. To NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the time for a woman head coach in the league is drawing near and is something he’d like to see happen soon. Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com has more:
“There definitely will,” Silver said when asked about a woman becoming an NBA head coach. “And I think it is on me to sort of ensure that it happens sooner rather than later.”
In an interview promoting the NBA and Leanin.org’s launch of a gender equality public awareness campaign Tuesday, Silver also said there will be more women officiating in the NBA as early as next season. The NBA recently announced some new initiatives to improve officiating, including the expanding of its officiating roster by 25 percent over the next three seasons.
Lauren Holtkamp currently is the only woman officiating in the NBA, following Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner. Silver would like to see the NBA add more women and even an international referee.
“It would be my goal as we look to increase that pool of officials that we recruit equally from pools of potential women as we do from men,” Silver said. “… we will be looking very hard at dramatically increasing the representation of women in our officiating ranks.”
“I would make all the same points in terms of being a head coach in the NBA that there is no physical reason why women can’t officiate in the NBA,” Silver also said. “I think it is more a function of the fact that they haven’t been in the pipeline to become NBA officials.”
…
“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 [it will happen]. 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.”
…
“In the old days, almost virtually all of our head coaches were former NBA players and that’s obviously no longer the case now. That used to be another barrier to entry.
“Long before people asked about women being head coaches, people said would it be possible for someone who hadn’t played in the NBA to be a head coach. Of course we are seeing that so we have broken another barrier there. I do think there are things that the league can and should be doing to accelerate the move toward a woman being a head coach in the league.”
