SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lindsey Harding is part of history once again.
After four seasons as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings, the former WNBA star will serve as head coach for the team’s G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings announced Tuesday.
In the same release, the team said Anjali Ranadivé would become the team’s general manager. With those moves, Stockton became the first G League affiliate led by two women.
Ranadivé, daughter of Sacramento Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadivé, previously worked as the Stockton Kings’ assistant general manager for the 2022-23 season.
She is the third female general manager for a G League team. Tori Miller became the first when she was hired by the College Park Skyhawks, the Atlanta Hawks’ affiliate, in July 2020. Amber Nichols became the second when she joined the Capital City Go-Go, the Washington Wizards’ affiliate in 2021.
Harding is the second woman to ever coach a professional men’s basketball team in the U.S. after Nancy Lieberman took the helm of the Texas Legends.
Lindsey Harding’s decorated résumé
Being part of the historic pair represents another “first” in Harding’s career. She was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 WNBA Draft. She reached the WNBA Finals with the Atlanta Dream in 2012 and retired in 2017. Shortly after, she was hired as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors’ summer league team. She spent a year in the NBA’s Basketball Operations Associate Program, received multiple job offers, and ultimately chose to work with the Philadelphia 76ers before the 2018-19 season.
With the Sixers, Harding became the first Black woman to become a full-time NBA scout. Initially thinking she would stay on the front-office track, she adjusted once again. She was promoted to player development coach and became the Sixers’ first female assistant coach. She also coached South Sudan’s first national women’s basketball team in 2021.
“I don’t think about the ‘trailblazer’ label at all. I’m just doing what I love,” Harding told Yahoo Sports during the peak of the Kings’ 2022-23 storybook season.
At the time, she was one of just five female assistants in the league and expressed hopes to lead her own team eventually.
Since a woman has yet to hold an NBA head coach title, Harding acknowledged her journey toward the goal would be unique.
“You see men who played at the highest level become a coach, you see men who have never played or came from the video room become head coaches,” Harding said. “There is no path.
“I’m a former player, but there’s no one that looks like me. First off, for a Black woman to be in the front bench — that’s a whole new kind of path there. Then just as a woman in general, to be a head coach [it’s different]. So that’s what I’m trying to do. What we’re doing, is just taking it one day at a time and creating that path.”
After joining the Kings in 2019, she worked under three different head coaches. Mike Brown was hired ahead of last season and led the team to its first playoff appearance in 16 seasons. Harding was responsible for scouting a pivotal home victory down the stretch of the season ahead of clinching a postseason berth.
Months before winning his second NBA Coach of the Year award, Brown spoke about what Harding meant to the team.
“Lindsey’s skill set is second to none,” he said. “Her ability to communicate with the players is off the charts. She’s not afraid. She works hard. She knows what she’s talking about. She can demonstrate what she’s talking about because she played at a high level. So I’m sure that someday she’s going to have an opportunity to be a head coach in this league or whatever league chooses to be a head coach in because she’s really, really, really good.”
As Harding grew in her career, she prioritized coming as who she is, a deliberate effort she’ll likely carry into her new role.
“When I first got in this business, someone said, ‘Hey, just fit in,’ and that was so uncomfortable for me,” Harding said. “Being the first to do something, you want the ones behind you to be able to be themselves. Someone’s going to have to try to break the mold and do it.”
Harding is currently coaching the Mexico women’s national team. Once their season ends in early July, she’ll dedicate her energy to pushing her Stockton team to new heights when competition begins in November.
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