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 originally appeared on SportsIllustrated.com
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