--- title: NBA Commissioner Wants Female Head Coach description: Find out what NBA commissioner said about having a female NBA head coach 'sooner rather than later.' canonical: https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/ author: Sports Illustrated article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T13:27:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:18.594Z og:title: A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen 'Sooner Rather Than Later' og:description: Says commissioner Adam Silver og:url: https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71670a6cb9ea2a44/6988c096a988cae4aa6bb874/adam-silver-nba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4607 og:image:height: 2591 og:image:alt: NBA All-Star Game 2017 - Commissioner Adam Silver Press Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen 'Sooner Rather Than Later' twitter:description: Says commissioner Adam Silver twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71670a6cb9ea2a44/6988c096a988cae4aa6bb874/adam-silver-nba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen 'Sooner Rather Than Later' > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Scooby Axson / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Scooby Axson / Sports Illustrated Mar 30, 2017 1:27 PM UTC  NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 18: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaks with the media during a press conference at Smoothie King Center on February 18, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 18: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaks with the media during a press conference at Smoothie King Center on February 18, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) Jonathan Bachman—Getty Images by [Scooby Axson / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Scooby Axson / Sports Illustrated Mar 30, 2017 1:27 PM UTC NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he believes that there will be a woman head coach in the NBA and wants it to happen “sooner rather than later.” Silver spoke to ESPN.com about equality in the league. Silver also says there will be more women officials in the league. “There definitely will,” Silver said about female head coaches. “And I think it is on me to sort of insure that it happens sooner rather than later.” “I would make all the same points in terms of being a head coach in the NBA that there is no physical reason why women can’t officiate in the NBA,” Silver added. “I think it is more a function of the fact that they haven’t been in the pipeline to become NBA officials.” There are currently two female assistant coaches in league: San Antonio’s Becky Hammon and Nancy Lieberman of the Sacramento Kings. Lauren Holtkamp is the only woman officiating in the NBA. “It is just a question of insuring that we have more women in the pipeline, that is one of the critically important issues,” Silver said. “In the old days, almost virtually all of our head coaches were former NBA players and that’s obviously no longer the case now. That used to be another barrier to entry.” _This_ [_article_](https://www.si.com/nba/2017/03/28/adam-silver-woman-head-coach) _originally appeared on_ [_SportsIllustrated.com_](http://sportsillustrated.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/"},"headline":"A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen 'Sooner Rather Than Later'","datePublished":"2017-03-30T13:27:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:18.594Z","description":"Says commissioner Adam Silver","url":"https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/","keywords":["motto","women","Basketball","NBA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71670a6cb9ea2a44/6988c096a988cae4aa6bb874/adam-silver-nba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Scooby Axson / Sports Illustrated"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71670a6cb9ea2a44/6988c096a988cae4aa6bb874/adam-silver-nba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NBA All-Star Game 2017 - Commissioner Adam Silver Press Conference","caption":"NBA All-Star Game 2017 - Commissioner Adam Silver Press Conference","creditText":"Jonathan Bachman—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4718212/nba-commissioner-wants-female-head-coach/","name":"A Female NBA Head Coach Will Happen 'Sooner Rather Than Later'"}}]}] ```