WNBA Legends Breaking Barriers

AND PROVING THAT BASKETBALL IS BASKETBALL

BY HOWARD MEGDAL
Head coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs sits with assistant coaches, Mitch Johnson, Becky Hammon and trainer, Will Sevening on March 11, 2022 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX.

When Becky Hammon accepted the head coach position with the Las Vegas Aces, many cheered her ascension to the top chair and the $1 million annual salary that came with it. But, given her tenure with the San Antonio Spurs, there was an undercurrent of worry in some circles as many saw Hammon as the best chance yet for a woman to hold an NBA head coaching job for the first time.

Hammon pushed back on that, forcefully, in a Zoom with the media shortly after taking the job. “I think it’s an ignorant statement. To think I’ve outgrown the WNBA in a coaching capacity is ridiculous,” she said. “I’d rather be a coach in the WNBA and have my own organization and be running a team.”

It is every bit Hammon’s right to chart her own course. But even the idea on its merits — that somehow, a WNBA path closes off an NBA future — isn’t the experience of the growing contingent of WNBA players moving freely between the men’s and women’s game, long a freedom reserved only for men.

Take Sheri Sam, for example. The Vanderbilt product played for a decade in the WNBA, making an All-Star team with the 2002 Orlando Miracle and winning WNBA titles in 2004 and 2008, before serving as an assistant coach for the Eastern Illinois women’s basketball team, an athletic director for a high school and even some time with the PGA of Northern California. She also regularly wrote on basketball to flex her analytical muscles the entire time.

So when Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin called her as she sat in an airport on New Year’s Eve, she was ready to listen. Cronin offered her the job of Scouting Manager, working closely with Basketball Operations.

“I think for me, it has always been grasping the moment of where you are,” Sam said in a phone interview. “You have to dream big goals. Yes, I do want to be a GM and run a team. But I think right now my focus is just [on] being in the moment and learning as much as I can.” The reality is, Sam said, people like Hammon helped create the opportunities simply because once NBA folks saw that women could succeed in a space previously reserved for men, other barriers quickly fell as well.

Sometimes, the one who needed convincing was the icon herself. That was the case for Swin Cash, who was approaching the end of her playing career in the WNBA — an illustrious one that included four All-Star appearances and three WNBA titles — when then-Liberty executive Isiah Thomas approached her with the idea of moving into the team’s front office. At the time, Cash was enjoying a productive career on the media side and hadn’t considered basketball operations.

“I think for me, it has always been grasping the moment of where you are,” Sam said in a phone interview. “You have to dream big goals. Yes, I do want to be a GM and run a team. But I think right now my focus is just [on] being in the moment and learning as much as I can.”

The reality is, Sam said, people like Hammon helped create the opportunities simply because once NBA folks saw that women could succeed in a space previously reserved for men, other barriers quickly fell as well.

Sometimes, the one who needed convincing was the icon herself. That was the case for Swin Cash, who was approaching the end of her playing career in the WNBA — an illustrious one that included four All-Star appearances and three WNBA titles — when then-Liberty executive Isiah Thomas approached her with the idea of moving into the team’s front office. At the time, Cash was enjoying a productive career on the media side and hadn’t considered basketball operations.

Cash met with fellow Liberty front office member Kristin Bernert, and the two discussed KB’s career path with the Detroit Shock. Eventually, Cash decided to try and do both, taking a job as Director of Franchise Development with the Liberty while continuing her television career.

“And that's how, doing both, I met Griff at Turner, and the rest is kind of history,” Cash said with a chuckle, referring to the New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin.

Cash now serves as Vice President of Basketball Operations with New Orleans, another barrier-breaker proving that basketball is basketball, and the women in the game belong wherever decisions are made, no matter who is playing.

“I think we're still getting there,” Cash said of true equality in the sport. “But I love the way that the women are now thinking … We're thinking about our careers in a more holistic way, and I love that about our women.”

Cash said she hesitated when she was offered the job by Griffin before a conversation with her husband reminded her how much she wanted to be in the arena.

“My husband was like, ‘you sit up here, you're on television, we're having conversations, watching games and talking about what you would do if you would run a team and what they should be doing …’ And I was like, oh, you know, I like a good challenge.”

“I THINK THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE FOR PEOPLE AND YOU SEE MORE WOMEN IN GENERAL ON THE BENCHES, ON NBA BENCHES AND AS TRAINERS. IT'S A BIG DEAL. SO I'M CERTAINLY PLEASED, YOU KNOW, NEVER SATISFIED, BUT I THINK I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS ON THIS END.”

KRISTI TOLIVER

That certainly describes the way Kristi Toliver entered the NBA coaching space. The Washington Wizards hired her as an assistant coach during her tenure playing for the Washington Mystics. However,the move was so new — an NBA team hiring a WNBA player, with the parent company owning both entities — that the WNBA ruled the Wizards could only pay Toliver $10,000.

Fortunately, a new collective bargaining agreement — one that reflected the growing demand for WNBA minds in the NBA space — allowed WNBA players to be paid like other NBA assistant coaches. The WNBPA even had an informal name for the new arrangement: The Kristi Toliver Rule.

Toliver is still playing for the Los Angeles Sparks while concurrently serving as an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks. So how does she see the progress?

“I think the opportunities are there for people,” Toliver said. “And you see more women in general on the benches, on NBA benches and as trainers,” referring to the hiring of Jessica Cohen as head trainer in Portland. “ ... it's a big deal. So I'm certainly pleased, you know, never satisfied, but I think I have no complaints on this end.”

Toliver, too, is dreaming bigger — she wants to be a head coach someday. NBA? WNBA? College men? College women? The answer is yes. Even as figures like Sam, Toliver and Cash rise, they’re extending the ladder for those who come after them. In Cash’s case, she hasn’t given up her WNBA reach either, recently becoming an investor in the league. That’s right, a player who once starred in the WNBA now owns a part of it.

“My Nana used to say it all the time: You’ve got to have your heart in the right place,” Cash said. “You’ve got to have your eyes set in the right direction, and my heart's in the right place. I care about the women that are coming behind me … I'm privileged now to be in certain rooms in the NBA space. I'm privileged to be able to make a phone call and get a connection and make a connection for somebody that may be interested not only in the NBA, but WNBA. Or even media.”

All this may seem like a lot of work to simply find equality in the game. But there are pleasures, too, from the effort. It’ll matter that Swin Cash and Sheri Sam and Kristi Toliver and Becky Hammon showed the one-way path for women in basketball was as foolish as it was limiting — men’s basketball was for too long denying itself some of the greatest basketball minds.

Their effort has changed that forever. So when Toliver found herself talking with Jalen Brunson before Dallas’ opener in Atlanta — she sees a lot of herself in him, and it’s an absolutely fantastic comp — she emphasized the parts of his game that will not only make him a better contributor, but a champion. This is the very essence of coaching.

“I'm just sharing my experiences and keeping them mindful of the bigger picture and why we do what we do,” Toliver said. “It's not to make the dollar, it's to enjoy the game. Have fun with your teammates. You only get to do this for so long. So I want them always to be mindful of just enjoying the journey and enjoying every single day of just being in the gym.”

Slowly but surely, that’s the way WNBA women in coaching get to think about it, too — no matter which gym or who is playing.

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