#2 Hiring the Best — Women in the NBA

REAL SPORTS Most Important Moments in Sports 2014 edition

While sometimes improved gender equity might have been in response to legal pressures or competitive encroachment, National Basketball League executives, players, owners and coaches have demonstrated over time a desire to simply develop and hire the best in ways other major pro leagues don’t.  

Take Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner, who in 1997 as the league faced an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint by referee Sandra Ortiz-Del Valle, became the first women to officiate male major-league games.  The WNBA also responded to the American Basketball League challenge with the WNBA. In both cases, irrespective of instigation or contributing factors, the NBA’s moves have stood the test of time. Palmer remains an active NBA referee, and the WNBA’s longevity is remarkable for women’s professional team sports.

Violet Palmer as profiled in the inaugural issue of 

REAL SPORTS magazine in 1998. 

In 2014, 17 years after Palmer and Kantner oversaw their first games, Lauren Holtkamp became the NBA’s third female referee. Holtkamp advanced through the referee training program, which includes experience in the D-League, that was established in 2001 and has developed 40 refs in that time.

Former All-Star guard Becky Hammon was hired as an assistant coach by the San Antonio Spurs, becoming the first full-time female assistant coach in the league’s history. Former trial lawyer Michele Roberts became the first woman to be named Executive Director of the NBA Players Association in July 2014. And after a raucous summer that saw the Los Angeles Clippers sold, new owner Steve Ballmer’s first hire was Gillian Zucker, to oversee business operations.

Becky Hammon on the bench with her Spurs coaching colleagues.

Photo Credit: NBAE/Getty Images

The trail blazed by these women is marked by skill and experience as well as the power of networking and influence. Unlike many senior roles in professional sports, whether held by men or women, neither of these women had family ties to the organizations.

Becky Hammon was a three time All-American at Colorado State, yet was undrafted by the WNBA. In 1999, she signed with the New York Liberty as a rookie and eventually was traded to the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2007. It wouldn’t be the first time she would be passed over. Overlooked for the U.S. Olympic team for the 2008 Beijing Games, Hammon drew considerable criticism (her patriotism was even questioned) when she became a naturalized Russian citizen and played instead for Russia, winning a bronze medal.

During her 16-year WNBA career, Hammon maintained ties with the Spurs, and while recovering from a knee injury in 2013 was a coaching intern and observed Spurs practices and joined the team and coaching staff watching scouting films. Her hiring this year makes her the first woman coach in any of the so-called big four United States sports leagues – Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, National Football League and the NBA.

Michele Roberts was selected out of more than 300 candidates to revamp the NBA Players Association despite no previous experience with either professional sports or labor union management. Roberts, who grew up in public housing in the Bronx, studied law at Berkeley and rose to full partner at a prestigious Washington law firm, where her skills as a lawyer have been highly praised, before applying for the NBA job. She had to convince union representatives from each NBA team that she was the person for the job. She received 32 of the 34 votes cast and became the first woman to lead a North American pro sports union.

New owner Steve Ballmer hired Gillian Zucker as president of business operation when he acquired the Los Angeles Clippers. She previously was president of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., the largest racetrack on the West Coast. Zucker has a varied background in sports, working for baseball and hockey teams and public relations for the NFL, and she was an outside-the-family, outside-the-industry hire for Ballmer.

Zucker joins a special group of women sports executives, including Jeanie Buss, a part owner and president of the L.A. Lakers, and Nancy Lieberman, the assistant general manager for the Dallas Mavericks' D-League team, the Texas Legends; Katie Blackburn, executive vice president for teh NFL's Cincinnati Bengals and Rita LeBlanc, vice chairwoman of the board for the New Orleans Saints; Lesa France, CEO of the International Speedway Corp. and board member of NASCAR; and Kim Ng, senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB. [RS]