With former Spurs assistant Becky Hammon now being seriously considered for a head coaching job, the NBA is set to enter a new era that has been long overdue.
Minority candidates for head coaching positions have often been dismissed as lesser options but hopefully, this is becoming a thing of the past. Basketball Hall of Famer, Olympian, and former coach Nancy Lieberman sees this as a turning point in the NBA but still thinks improvements can be made. For her, this starts with some version of the Rooney Rule being used in the NBA according to AZ Central’s Katherine Fitzgerald.
“I think the NBA should have the Rooney Rule,” she [Lieberman] said. “Or make it the Lieberman rule.”
“The Rooney Rule is about equality,” she said. “So we need a rule in the NBA that’s about equality. Just interview us.”
Nancy Lieberman, who was once one of the most esteemed WNBA coaches, also eventually earned a job as the Sacramento Kings assistant coach for 4 years. Though many saw her as a legitimate candidate, she never landed an NBA head coaching job. However, she is generally considered the first woman to coach a professional men’s basketball team after she was given the reins to the Texas Legends in 2009, the Mavs’ G-League affiliate.
The Rooney Rule was a regulation first developed in the NFL in 2003 in response to the firings of African-American head coaches Tony Dungy and Dennis Green. Both Dungy and Green were wildly successful at the helm and many saw their terminations as unjust. A study was then conducted and it was confirmed that minorities have a substantially lesser chance of getting the job than a white counterpart with the same accomplishments.
What the Rooney Rule mandates is that NFL organizations must interview ethnic-minority candidates when conducting a search for their new head coach. Applying this to the NBA can also be beneficial for all parties.
The Rooney Rule has worked well for the NFL and now it could hopefully do the same for the NBA if Nancy Leiberman is able to make it happen. We have seen minority coaching candidates be marginalized in year’s past and hopefully now may finally be the time for change.
Becky Hammon appears to be on the verge of finally landing her first NBA head coaching job which would be a major step in the right direction and sets a solid foundation for more minority and female coaches to get a fair chance.
