Bishara: Is the future of coaching female?
From Motez Bishara at CNN on August 20, 2015, with mention of SABR member Justine Siegal:
The faces of coaching in big-time sports are looking a lot less familiar these days.
Say goodbye to the old boys’ club that’s been filling vacant managerial slots since the dawn of professional sports, and welcome in the dynamic women that have been rising up the ranks everywhere from the NBA to the PGA.
“What you’re going to find in the NBA, in professional soccer, in the NFL is that men will listen to just about anyone who they think will make them a better player and perform better,” Dr. Justine Siegal of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society told CNN.
Last month, Sacramento Kings assistant coach Nancy Lieberman became the second female to land a job on an NBA bench, following Becky Hammon, who is in her second season as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs under five-time NBA champ Gregg Popovich.
Popovich makes no bones about what he thinks of Hammon, his 38-year-old assistant who has been tipped to land an NBA head-coaching job, possibly as early as next season.
“She’s a leader, she’s fiery, she’s got high intelligence and our guys just respected the hell out of her. She’s out on the court, she’s coaching with us, she’s running drills, and so that’s why we made her a full-time person,” he recently told KNBR radio.
Read the full article here: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/20/sport/female-coaches/index.html
Originally published: August 21, 2015. Last Updated: August 21, 2015.