PHILADELPHIA — As Nick Nurse settles into his new job leading the 76ers, fans hope he’ll bring not just a championship, but badly needed stability to the team.
But someday, even if it’s a while down the road, it will be someone else’s turn. When the time comes, could that someone break one of the hardest barriers in sports: a woman leading a men’s pro sports team?
There are quite a few candidates across the basketball landscape with big-time resumés, people who’ve worked in men’s hoops as much as women’s hoops — and sometimes more.
Here’s a look at some of the top names.
Dawn Staley
Before getting into her North Philly roots, her Sixers fandom, her huge popularity here, or anything else, let’s start here: She’s an elite basketball coach. She knows how to game plan, and, as she showed leading USA Basketball to Olympic gold in 2021 during the pandemic, she knows how to manage egos. Staley also was a U.S. national team assistant during the 2008 and 2016 Olympic cycles.
As The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mike Jensen wrote earlier this year:
You smartly say that Staley has never coached pro ball and doesn’t know the league. Sure, but assume that Staley, who talked to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021 about their head-coaching vacancy, is at least smarter than you or me when it comes to these things. One obvious trait of Staley’s from observing her at fairly close range is that she knows exactly what she knows and doesn’t know. She knows the NBA is a players’ league. Let’s not forget she’s one of the best players this city has ever produced. She thinks like a player.
OK, now for all the other stuff. It would be an utter sensation. Sure, it would be controversial, but who better than Staley to stand up to the haters? She’s been doing that her whole life.
As Jensen also wrote:
“I’ve been wary about writing ‘Call Dawn’ when the Temple and Penn State men’s jobs opened in the last few years. You can’t offer her a cut in pay, claiming it’s a chance to make history. The Sixers job is different. This would be the biggest news in the basketball world. It would fit Staley’s own vision of always reaching for higher ground in her profession.”
That’s as well as anyone can say it. But maybe there should be one caveat. If she follows a coach who flops and the team gets blown up, would it be fair to saddle her with cleaning up the mess?
That’s not a question about hiring a woman. It’s a question about whether Staley deserves better. Because in this town, a lot of people would answer yes.
Becky Hammon
After a decorated playing career, she spent eight years as a high-profile assistant coach on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs staff. When Popovich was ejected during a December 2020 game, Hammon became the first female acting head coach in NBA history. At times, it seemed she might be his successor.
But a year later, she returned to the WNBA to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces, as part of that team’s huge investment in infrastructure for its star players. The reward came immediately, as the Aces won the championship in Hammon’s first season in charge.
It has not been as smooth sailing since. Although the Aces keep winning on the court, the team became caught in a scandal over breaking league spending rules, and Hammon got caught in a scandal over improper comments along the way. She was suspended for two games.
Not long before the punishment was announced, Hammon interviewed with the Toronto Raptors for the vacancy created when they fired Nurse. In WNBA circles, there were a lot of questions about whether this could be an escape hatch for her, should things get worse in Las Vegas. And for WNBA insiders with Philly connections — of which there are quite a few — there were worries that if the Sixers gave her that escape hatch, it wouldn’t be a good look.
There should be little doubt that Hammon will coach in the NBA someday. She may be the one who breaks the glass ceiling. But if she was to do so right now, there would be a lot of questions. In another year or two, they should blow over.
Lindsey Harding
Currently the head coach of the Sacramento Kings’ G League team, she’s been an assistant with the NBA squad for four years now. Before then, she worked for the 76ers as a scout and player development coach.
“She knows all the tricks of the trade,” former Sixers guard Zhaire Smith said in the summer of 2019. “She knows what she’s talking about. People sometimes look at women like they don’t know what they’re talking about. I really respect her.”
Kara Lawson
At the start of 2020, she was the leader of this pack when she spent a season as a Boston Celtics assistant coach. Then she left to become the Duke women’s team’s head coach, and she’s been there ever since. We’ll see if she comes back to the pro game, whether on the men’s or women’s side.
Jenny Boucek
She’s in her sixth year as an NBA assistant coach, from the Kings to the Dallas Mavericks and now the Indiana Pacers. Before then, she spent many years as an assistant coach and head coach in the WNBA, including three-year stints leading the Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm.
“She’s one of the most knowledgeable coaches that I’ve ever been around,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told the Indianapolis Star last year. “She has a great understanding of the younger generation of player that’s coming up, and the things that are important to be able to connect with them on a day-to-day basis. She’s one of my trusted friends, and one of the very important people on my staff.”
Brittni Donaldson
This is a young name to watch. The 30-year-old former Northern Iowa guard has spent almost her entire working career with NBA teams, including as a data analyst for the Raptors when they won the title in 2019. She then became a Raptors assistant coach, and last year moved to the Detroit Pistons. Earlier this month, she joined the Atlanta Hawks as an assistant, becoming that team’s first female coach.
Teresa Weatherspoon
If you’ve followed women’s basketball, you know this is one of the biggest names in the sport’s history. A five-time WNBA All-Star and 1988 Olympic gold medalist, Weatherspoon was hired by the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019, and worked closely with Zion Williamson. The Pelicans released Weatherspoon this month, and it will be interesting to see where she goes next.
Lindsay Gottlieb
As with Lawson, she went to the NBA and then returned to the college game. In 2019, Gottlieb became the first head coach of an NCAA women’s team to get an NBA assistant job when the Cleveland Cavaliers hired her from Cal-Berkeley. She signed a four-year deal but left after two years when Southern California hired her to lead its women’s basketball program.
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Staff writer Gina Mizell contributed to this article.
