Women on NBA benches were once a novelty. Today, female assistant coaches are an established—if still small—part of the league, and their presence keeps the question alive: when will a woman finally be hired as an NBA head coach?
The modern breakthrough came with Becky Hammon. After a Hall of Fame-caliber playing career, she joined Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs in 2014, becoming the NBA’s first full-time female assistant coach. In 2015 she coached the Spurs’ Summer League team to a championship, and in 2020 she became the first woman to act as an NBA head coach in a regular-season game when Popovich was ejected. Hammon later left for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, where multiple titles have reinforced the idea that she has the résumé to lead an NBA team.
She is not alone. Pioneers such as Lisa Boyer in Cleveland and Nancy Lieberman in Sacramento opened doors earlier, and a second wave has followed: Jenny Boucek, Brittni Donaldson and Lindsay Harding are among the women currently serving as NBA assistants. Their responsibilities are identical to those of male colleagues—game-planning, scouting, player development and in-game adjustments—making them integral parts of coaching staffs, not symbolic hires.
The broader trend, however, is uneven. At one point more than ten women were working as NBA assistant coaches, but that number has fluctuated in recent years as some moved to college or the WNBA and others were not replaced by new female hires. Progress exists, but it is fragile and depends heavily on the vision of team owners and general managers.
Could one of these assistants become the NBA’s first permanent female head coach? From a purely basketball perspective, the answer is clearly yes. Many have decades of experience, championship rings and strong player relationships. What remains is an ownership group willing to challenge convention, withstand media scrutiny and judge candidates strictly on merit.
In that sense, the WNBA and NCAA are functioning as powerful proving grounds: women like Hammon, Kara Lawson and Niele Ivey are running major programs, managing egos and handling high-pressure playoff runs. The more they succeed, the harder it becomes to argue that they cannot lead 15 NBA players.
The real question is no longer whether a woman can be an NBA head coach, but which franchise will decide to be first—and how quickly others will follow once that barrier is finally broken.
