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After Steve Clifford introduced he was stepping down as head coach of the Hornets, Charlotte started contacting candidates for his outdated job. Certainly one of them is Harding, who’s the one feminine coach of a males’s skilled basketball crew in America, because the chief of the Stockton Kings.
Her debut season was an enormous success. The Sacramento Kings’ G League affiliate had the league’s finest report at 24-10, ending the season with the No. 4 offense and the No. 1 protection.
Alongside the way in which, Harding helped develop Keon Ellis, who went from two-way participant to beginning guard for the guardian membership, and Colby Jones, who’s beginning to play important minute for Sacramento.
They misplaced within the single-game Western Convention Finals, however Harding was voted Coach of the Yr, the primary ladies to win the award. She joins some very prestigious NBA coaches among the many record of COY winners, together with 76ers coach Nick Nurse, who gained a title with the Toronto Raptors, Hawks coach Quin Snyder and Chris Finch, who has led the first-place Minnesota Timberwolves to 54 wins and counting this season.
Harding follows within the footsteps of Corridor of Famer Becky Hammon, who labored as a San Antonio Spurs assistant and interviewed for jobs as an NBA common supervisor and head coach earlier than taking up the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, the place she gained titles in her first two seasons. There are at present 4 feminine assistant coaches working within the NBA, however Harding is the one G League head coach.
Harding was the No. 1 decide within the 2007 WNBA draft and performed within the league for 9 years. She first grew to become a improvement coach with the 76ers after her professional profession ended, and he or she joined the Kings in the identical function in 2019.
May she be employed? Harding might be competing with a variety of NBA assistants, however her work with Stockton proves she will be able to develop gamers and run an NBA-style offense and protection.
A crew just like the Hornets would don’t have anything to lose taking an opportunity on Harding, with no observe report of success however a variety of promising younger gamers — and new homeowners.
That is likely to be a blessing and a curse. Harding may get an unprecedented, historic alternative to steer an NBA crew. However it might be with an NBA crew that is by no means completed larger than sixth since becoming a member of the NBA in 2004, with huge questions on its future.
Clearly, NBA groups are noticing Harding’s success. It stays to see if any can have the center to offer her a head teaching job.
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