San Antonio Spurs: Is NBA prepared for potential of a female head coach?
What do the numbers suggest?
It’s difficult to remember a time in the NBA in which coaches and front office executives were on this short of a leash. Given today’s win-now culture, organizations have been quick to introduce full shakeups in as early as a single season.
Take for example the Phoenix Suns. Once regarded as one of the most respected franchises in pro basketball, their head coaching position has seemingly become the type of job average fans like you and I could apply and interview for.
For context, in 2019-20, they’ll be “welcoming” in their seventh head coach in 11 years in Monty Williams. Seriously, the coaching situation has gotten so crowded, fans are making trivia out of it.
Not far behind, franchises like the Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, and New York Knicks (six head coaches this decade) have gotten relatively used to welcoming new coaches.
With analytics and numerical samples becoming the ever-convenient way to evaluate talent of all tiers in the NBA, it’s surprising that one equation has never been called into question.
Add in these two factors: teams changing head coaches at seemingly the snap of a finger, plus the idea of the same coaches getting opportunities. Would expecting a new, surprising result not equal insanity?
As Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson highlighted in his article on the coaching revolution being long overdue, we’ve seen female coaches step up to the plate and deliver championships in leagues a few tiers below, such as the BIG3 League or in the NCAA.
The most recent case in point is Lisa Leslie, who similar to Hammon first reached notoriety as a superstar in the WNBA. During this past BIG3 season, Leslie was not only named as the Coach of the Year, but is also at least partially responsible for helping pave a way for Joe Johnson to re-enter the NBA at age 38.
Placing a BIG3 championship and even a regular season win in the NBA would be difficult, though, it in some ways disqualifies the longstanding belief that gender is the primary matter behind coaching successful teams.
Starting with Lisa Boyer — the first woman to hold a coaching position of any kind in NBA history in 2001 — the league has slowly increased its number of women in on-court coaching roles through the years. At the tip of the 2019-20 season, that number will balloon to eight.
So, there’s the good of the situation, and we could list the accolades of Hammon and other deserving coaches until we’re blue in the face. For example: the team that Hammon coached to the Summer League championship? They had only 17 days to prepare for the tournament before bringing home the trophy.
As to if that means anything without a proper plan for the future, remains to be seen. But, here’s what we know for sure.