Since 2017, the NBA has seen ten female coaches join organizations, a sign of progress and inclusion for the league. The boom of female coaches we see in today’s NBA started 19 years ago, when Lisa Boyer was named assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2001.
In college, Boyer played as a striker at Ithaca College, graduating in 1979. Her coaching career began in 1981, when she was assistant coach of the women’s basketball team Davidson Wildcats. Throughout the 1980s, Boyer was an assistant coach for East Carolina, University of Miami Ohio and Virginia Tech. Boyer was briefly head coach at Converse College during the 1982-1983 season. Boyer coached the Bradley Braves women’s basketball team from 1986 to 1996.
In 1996, the first independent professional women’s basketball league in the United States was created, called the American Basketball League (ABL). Boyer was named head coach of Richmond / Philadelphia Rage and coached the team for one season. Later, Boyer joined the WNBA as an assistant coach for the now defunct Cleveland Rockers from 1998-2002.
The Rockers’ head coach during Boyer’s time with the team was Dan Hughes, who had a relationship with Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Lucas. Lucas attended Rockers training and games, which is how he noticed Boyer.
Boyer asked Hughes to ask Lucas if she could attend a Cavaliers training in October 2001.
According The Athletic, Hughes said: “So, I talked to John (Lucas), and John said, ‘Yes, make her come.’ He said, ‘Actually, why isn’t she helping us?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know’. And he asked me, ‘Do you think she would like to do that?’ And I said, ‘I think so.’
After watching Cavs’ training, Lucas asked Boyer to help the team for the rest of the season. Since the Rockers and Cavs had the same owners and Boyer was on the Rockers’ payroll, she was not paid for her work with the Cavs. Boyer was considered a volunteer assistant coach and was not listed in the team section of the Cavs media guide. However, Boyer can be considered the first female coach in NBA history.
During Boyer’s time with the Cavs, she helped create transition and defensive exercises and helped to execute them in practice. Boyer would sometimes knit with 2.13-meter Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Boyer attended coaches ‘meetings and tracked Cavs’ defense during games.
Boyer was not allowed to travel with the team or sit on the bench, but she sat behind the team at all home games. Boyer was allowed to enter the locker room, so that players kept their shirts permanently at all times.
After 2002, Boyer left the WNBA and the NBA to be an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team Temple Owls. Boyer has been with the South Carolina Gamecocks since 2008, now an associate coach of former WNBA star Dawn Staley.
When Boyer trained Philadelphia Rage at ABL from 1996 to 1998, Staley was his star. Boyer joined Staley in Temple in 2003 and followed her to South Carolina. Boyer and Staley won a championship in 2017 with Gamecocks.
According to womenshoopsworld.com, Staley said: “People often hire friends just to hire them because they are close to them, but they have to be the type of friends who really understand this business and know you. (We) have to be cut from the same cloth when it comes to philosophy and being good people. Boyer verified all of these qualities. “
Boyer said The Athletic: “I’m so happy that women are in it now because there are a lot of women out there who, you know, used to be angry that men can train women, but why can’t women train men? And so, that in itself is very frustrating. I’m happy to be starting to turn the tide a little bit. “
It took another thirteen years for another woman to be hired and coach of the NBA. In 2014, Becky Hammon joined the San Antonio Spurs technical team.
Today, there are eleven coaches in the NBA.
For more WNBA content from Sports Are From Venus, click here.
For more NBA content on Sports Are From Venus, click here.
For more thoughts and opinions from Zachary Diamond, check the author’s page or Twitter.
(AP Photo / Gerry Broome)