NBA Commissioner Adam Silver firmly believes that women coaches are worthy and deserve a place in the league’s play-calling helm.
In his appearance on the NCAA’s podcast channel, Silver said that he would be “hugely disappointed” if there will be no female head coach yet in the NBA for the next five years.
“I would be hugely disappointed if certainly in five years we haven’t seen our first female head coach in the NBA,” Silver told Bonnie Bernstein (h/t Bleacher Report).
Currently this season, there are five females fielding a coaching assistant opportunity, namely: Jenny Boucek (Indiana Pacers), Lindsey Harding (Sacramento Kings), Sonia Raman (Minnesota Grizzlies), Kristi Toliver (Dallas Mavericks), and Teresa Weatherspoon (New Orleans Pelicans).
The said five only belong to the 13 total females who managed to work as assistants in the whole history of the association. In 2001, Lisa Boyer was the first one to enter, serving as a volunteer assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’ve said this before, as much as professional sports has led and the WNBA and NBA have led in certain areas, we’re a bit behind in this area,” Silver said. “We should have more women head coaches. We should have a female head coach right now. We should have more women referees, and it’s something we’re working very hard on right now.”
WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces mentor Becky Hammon shattered the barriers in the NBA when she was a former assistant for Gregg Popovich in the San Antonio Spurs.
Back in 2015, she became the first-ever female head coach in the Summer League. She followed it up in 2020 and became the first woman to act as a head coach in an NBA game.
