Los Angeles — Lindsey Harding’s path to the Los Angeles Lakers’ bench began with a crisis few coaches ever face and now positions her for the next barrier-breaking move in the NBA.
From December shock to coaching award
On Dec. 15, 2023, while Harding led the Stockton Kings in her debut season as the G League’s first Black female head coach, assistant general manager Gabriel Harris stepped onto the practice court. Expecting news of an NBA call-up for 6-foot-10 center Chance Comanche, Harding instead learned police were on site to arrest the player. Comanche was later charged in Las Vegas with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in the strangulation death of 23-year-old Marayna Rodgers. He pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.
The arrest came hours before a 2½-hour bus ride to Santa Cruz, where a rattled Stockton squad lost to the Warriors’ affiliate. At the G League Winter Showcase in Orlando days later, questions about Comanche followed the team everywhere. Harding arranged a theme-park outing to lift spirits, requested crisis support from the NBA and Kings, and unsuccessfully petitioned the league to postpone games.
Despite a 5-11 start, Stockton finished 24-10 after the Showcase. Harding became the first woman voted G League Coach of the Year.
Duke bond reconnects in Los Angeles
Nearly two years later, the 41-year-old sits beside head coach JJ Redick — a college classmate from Duke’s 2002 freshman class — as the Lakers’ first female assistant.
Team governor Jeanie Buss called Harding “a professional … with energy and positivity,” while general manager Rob Pelinka recalled meeting her years earlier at an eighth-grade game in Orange County and being struck by her character.
Responsibilities on the Lakers’ staff
Harding prepares scouting reports for roughly one-third of the schedule, directs the scout team in practice, coached L.A.’s Summer League entry in Las Vegas, and works daily with guard Gabe Vincent and rookie Adou Thiero. Vincent praised her low-key, detail-oriented approach: “She’s more likely to pull someone to the side … She really just does a good job at trying to help her players.”
During an early-season timeout last year, LeBron James quizzed Harding on late-game strategy, offering his own preferences and reinforcing her ambition to become an NBA head coach.
Career built on firsts
A Naismith College Player of the Year at Duke, Harding was picked No. 1 in the 2007 WNBA draft and spent nine seasons with six teams before retiring in 2017. She entered the NBA’s Basketball Operations Associates Program, then joined the Philadelphia 76ers as the franchise’s first female pro-personnel scout and later shifted to player development.
She has coached Mexico’s and South Sudan’s women’s national teams and turned down aggressive interest from the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks last year, believing continued NBA experience best serves her long-term goal.
Eyes on an unprecedented promotion
Harding remains optimistic about shattering the NBA’s head-coaching glass ceiling. “Are we saying that these men just won’t hire me because I’m a woman? I’m going to give them more credit than that,” she said. Front-office executives such as Detroit Pistons president Trajan Langdon and Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown cite her communication skills, presence and honesty as head-coach traits.
For now, she concentrates on the league’s most scrutinized team. “I can deal with anything,” Harding said, pointing to the ordeal in Stockton as proof. The Lakers believe that resilience could soon translate into another historic first — but this time in the NBA’s top job.
Source: ESPN
