Lindsey Harding

Two decades before Lindsey Harding joined J.J. Redick’s Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff, they got to know each other at Duke University. Back in the early 2000s, Harding and Redick developed a friendship while they were simultaneously starring for the Blue Devils.

Redick was named the Naismith College Player of the Year in 2006, and then Harding won the same award in 2007. They reunited briefly on the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2017-18 NBA season when Redick was a player and Harding was a player development coach. Then, when Redick was hired as the Lakers’ head coach this offseason, he made sure to hire Harding to his staff.

“I've known JJ for 22 years now,” Harding said. “We got to Duke the same summer, so I've known him a long time. Personally, just to see his growth as a player into this position and as a man into this position, it's been incredible to just see that growth.

“When I was with Philly, my first time being a player development coach, he was a player there. And I don't know if he remembers this, but I remember actually sitting with him at lunch and, it’s funny, I told him, ‘Oh my God, you've grown so much!’ Whenever we saw each other in passing, it was like, ‘Hey, how are you?!’ We've always had that relationship. But actually sitting down talking, it had been years. But [I told him] I saw the growth just from being an 18-year-old kid to now. That's been a great thing to see.”

As a coach, Redick has made a strong first impression on Harding, who is very excited about the staff that’s been assembled in Los Angeles.

“As far as his coaching, he knows the game, he has a brilliant mind,” Harding said. “He has a way of speaking to the players thus far that I've seen that they just really respond to what he's doing and what he's saying. A lot of it is also just the respect for the kind of player he was and what he brought to the table and what other players say about him. It's all about perception. A lot of these players talk to other players, like, ‘Tell me about this guy.’ So with his reputation and everything like that, it really does help. But he has his vision. He knows where we want to go and how we want to get there. And so far, it's been a great experience.

“And with the experienced staff that we have – Nate McMillan, Scotty Brooks, Bob Beyer, who I was with in Sacramento – that experience is invaluable, and for me to sit and be able to learn from these guys has been incredible. … I think a big part of it is that you want people that have great minds and know basketball, but that can work well together. The personalities mesh, let me just say that. So it's been a really great experience so far. We've been working very well together.”

Harding was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft, and she played 10 seasons in the WNBA, averaging 9.8 points, 4.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.1 steals. She believes her time as a player helped make her the coach she is today.

“You have to learn the game somehow. I played it, but a lot of these other coaches learned it from the video room. You have to learn it somehow, and that was my experience. And I've always been a people person. I was a point guard, so I was understanding personalities and managing them as a player on the court. It’s understanding who to get the ball to when, why, and how. I've always been aware of what's going on. I'm aware of facial expressions, I'm aware of feelings. I say that while laughing, but it matters! It matters if they feel that they haven't touched the ball in a while. It matters if they haven't had a play called for them in a while. All of that, it comes together, being a coach and trying to have that awareness now. Being a head coach, it’s hard to see all of that, and that's why you have assistants. So having that awareness, trying to make it as smooth and as easy as possible for JJ, seeing all these things that I've experienced, I think, will be helpful. You get to see different things – I played all around the world and had different coaches and played different styles – and understand everybody's an individual, so there's not one size fits all. It's just understanding that and having the awareness.”

Initially, Harding wanted to work in a front office, and she even joined an NBA program meant to help former players land an executive role. However, the coaching bug eventually bit her.

“When I retired, I worked in the league office for a year in New York City. I was a basketball operations associate. It was a program they had for former players, so there were four of us there, and we kind of circulated through all the departments within basketball operations for the NBA, and it was actually a position to get you more into management,” she said. “That's kind of how I really started and then got a job in Philadelphia as a scout, and that's obviously like front office. Then, I was asked if I wanted to be a player development coach, and I took that and that's kind of how the coaching started.

“I think the best advice I got is that people who have coached have gone to the front office, but a lot of people in the front office don't really become a coaches. So, if I wanted to try it, I knew I had to do it now before I established which direction I was going in. And [I knew] I could always go try working in the front office if that’s the direction I wanted to go… But it stuck!”

What other advice would she give to retired players who want to pursue a coaching career?

“Meet everyone you can while you play. Everybody wants to know somebody who's playing basketball, so meet everybody – whether it's business people, whether it's marketing, whether it's social media, whether it's front offices, meet everybody and let them know [you want to coach],” Harding said. “I mean, if you're getting toward the end, there's nothing wrong with letting coaches and front-office people on your team and other teams know that this is something you'd be interested in.

“And be willing to work your way up. Some get the opportunity because they may have a bigger name or an amazing relationship to automatically jump on a bench or jump to the front of someone's bench, but just know that is very rare. You are not starting from the bottom, but you will have to start in a position to work your way up because it is a different job. It is a completely different job and a different role than what we've been doing as a player. So have that patience, whether it's through the video room, whether it's through player development, whether it's through the G League, and just be present in those steps. Just because I played, I thought I was going to be a good coach, but that's not necessarily the case, so you have to be willing to work for that. I think that's the biggest thing.”

Harding knows a thing or two about working her way up the coaching ranks. She says her time in the NBA G League helped her “tremendously” in terms of her development.

“Your staff is smaller, your budget is way smaller, it's all hands on deck,” she said. “You don't just have one role – you have to plug the leaks. You have to do everything that needs to be done. Sometimes, you're the one checking the players in the hotel. You have to make sure you're on tiny buses to go to and from games and to and from the airport. Sometimes you plan to have a full set of two-way players and assignment guys and at a moment's notice, they could all be taken back up to the big team and then you're changing your entire game plan. That can happen when you're doing a scout and the entire starting five changes because the opposing team decided to send their assignments and two-ways back up to the big team. So, you adjust on the fly, and I think that is huge. You can prepare as much as possible, but being okay with not being perfect, I had to learn that a little bit. It just teaches you all of these things, and that's only probably part of it. But I think being able to adjust on the fly is probably the biggest thing because now in the NBA, when there are changes, it'll never be like the G League, so you're always prepared.”

Last season, Harding won the NBA G League Coach of the Year award, becoming the first female coach to earn that honor. This accolade meant a lot to Harding.

“Well, first, I had an incredible staff and that's really a coaching staff award, not just the head coach. I think the biggest part is knowing that my peers – all these other coaches and GMs – are the ones who voted. Knowing that these men voted for me, it means a lot. It means that they saw the basketball, because we did have a great season, and they voted on the work that we did. That really did mean a lot to me because you go into this not thinking about that award. You don't think about that, you just think about getting the experience, hopefully having a good season, and helping the team as much as you can. But winning that, it's huge. I think a lot of people are actually already here, but the ones that still have questions about changing things or giving more women opportunities, I hope it shows them that if you give us an opportunity, great things can happen.”

Now, Harding is also the first female coach in the Lakers’ franchise history. She hopes to see more and more women coaching in the NBA in the near future.

“I think, more than anything, you just want to be judged on the body of work, right? That's the most important thing. I think the biggest question that really needs to be asked and focused on and talked about is why haven't there been women? What are we talking about? Are we still back in the 1960s as far as ‘women can't do that’? We're beyond that, right? We're beyond that, hopefully, as a society, we're beyond that in the NBA. And it's not trying to say, ‘Oh, a woman can do what a man can do.’ It's how it should be.

“Whether you're a man or a woman, you should get an opportunity – same as your background, same as your race, same as your religion, same as everything. I understand that I'm getting certain opportunities, and I'm treated no different than any other coach here. If I mess up, I'll get cussed out. (laughs) If I'm doing a great job, I'm going to be praised. I'm going to be held accountable just like everybody else. And hopefully, more and more people will get opportunities and not think of it as, ‘Oh, are we taking a chance on this? Are we taking a risk on this?’ It's not a risk or a chance. I'm just like any man that you would hire. It's just, is this person a fit or not?”

Meanwhile, Harding is thrilled to see the WNBA surging in popularity and breaking ratings records.

“I think it's great. I mean, women's basketball has been good the entire time, way before me. I'm so happy that they're starting to recognize that,” Harding said. “And you know what? Sometimes you need a change-maker. We would say that Michael Jordan might've been the change-maker [in the NBA], right? Sometimes you need a change-maker, and I think this class has been huge. I think Caitlin Clark has been huge. I think Angel Reese has been huge. Like it or not, sometimes you need the change-maker. Now, it's good to see it on TV a lot more. It's good to see conversations about it – normal conversations in places. It's good to see it on in bars and restaurants alongside baseball games that are on. It's good and not just for the little girls, but the little boys need to see that this is normal and they’re also someone you can look up to.”

While Harding can relate to being the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft and the pressure that comes with it, she’s the first to admit that Clark and other top prospects are facing a different beast these days thanks to social media and NIL deals.

“I can't imagine being those young women and young men who are getting drafted in this day and age with the level of social media and now NIL. Once you make money, for some reason, people feel like they can be in your business and judge you even more,” Harding said. “The level of strength from these kids is incredible. … I’ve thought about it, like, ‘Man, how would I have handled being a top pick [today]? How would I have handled all of that?’ There’s so much scrutiny at times. Obviously, there's a lot of praise too, but there are a lot of things said and written that really should not be, [especially when] it’s said to and about kids. I just commend all of them for having that strength and continued perseverance and pushing forward and honestly not caring because they're younger than me, but I use that as inspiration for me moving forward. But as far as on the court, they're playing their game. They're doing the thing that they love and they're competing at the highest level, and that's all you can ask of them.”

Harding is also doing what she loves, and she admits that her perception of coaching has changed since her playing days.

“I think, as a player, you just don't realize how much work goes into coaching – the level of preparation, the amount of film, the amount of conversations, the amount of planning, the analytics and numbers. All of this stuff comes together to make one decision on how we may defend something. It's a lot of work, and I just didn't realize exactly how much work goes in and how many minds are behind it. When I got to this side, I realized it. And obviously, I didn't have as much of appreciation for it then as I do now.”

Lindsey Harding

BY Alex Kennedy

SHARE