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Brittni Donaldson was almost literally born into basketball in Iowa, but even she could never have imagined her improbable path to becoming the league's 10th current female assistant coach, and the youngest at just 26 years old. Donaldson spent the last two seasons as a data analyst -- i.e., advanced stats guru -- in the Raptors' front office before Masai Ujiri, Toronto's president and alternate governor, and Nick Nurse, the head coach, picked her in mid-July to fill an opening on Toronto's bench.............

.................One highlight: The Raptors were on the road when they acquired Marc Gasol at the trade deadline, but Gasol had to visit Toronto to undergo a physical. He asked whether someone might run him through a workout. The team thought about calling one coach back in. Higher-ups decided Donaldson could handle it herself. "That was special for me -- to be basically the first person he interacted with on the basketball side," she says.

Ujiri watched from his office and was impressed when Donaldson sat with Gasol after the workout, opened a laptop, and took him through some of Toronto's plays. "We were confident Brittni could do it," Ujiri says. "But when you see her do it, it's different." Nurse made it clear Donaldson will not be "the analytics person" on the coaching staff, though she will take the lead translating such data for players and coaches. She will do everything the other coaches do: scout opponents, debate rotations and X's and O's, and pitch strategic ideas.

Dominater wrote:Hope she gets a shot to be a head coach. It's cool to see these women starting to really break some barriers here

Dominater wrote:Hope she gets a shot to be a head coach. It's cool to see these women starting to really break some barriers here

Ujiri watched from his office and was impressed when Donaldson sat with Gasol after the workout, opened a laptop, and took him through some of Toronto's plays. "We were confident Brittni could do it," Ujiri says. "But when you see her do it, it's different." Nurse made it clear Donaldson will not be "the analytics person" on the coaching staff, though she will take the lead translating such data for players and coaches. She will do everything the other coaches do: scout opponents, debate rotations and X's and O's, and pitch strategic ideas.

mastermixer wrote:When you’re working one of the most sought after specialized jobs in the world, I’m sure every path is “unlikely”

I just find it funny how her path was actually very straight forward. Always loved and was around basketball; “advanced stat guru” - the most sought after position in sports right now, to assistant coach. Seems to make sense to me...

But seriously, it’s pretty cool to not only see these women breaking barriers into the nba, but by all accounts all of them have earned these opportunities on merit and are contributing to their teams success.

You really have to credit Pop and the Spurs for breaking that barrier with Becky Hammond.

homecourtloss wrote:26 year old non-NBA player already an assistant coach? Seems unusual indeed.

Also, the language used seems more like a team fostering an ideas project rather than simply getting someone for the job.

Ujiri watched from his office and was impressed when Donaldson sat with Gasol after the workout, opened a laptop, and took him through some of Toronto's plays. "We were confident Brittni could do it," Ujiri says. "But when you see her do it, it's different." Nurse made it clear Donaldson will not be "the analytics person" on the coaching staff, though she will take the lead translating such data for players and coaches. She will do everything the other coaches do: scout opponents, debate rotations and X's and O's, and pitch strategic ideas.

Would anyone ever say, “We were confident Bob could do it, but when you see him do it, it’s different.”

Would anyone write “He will do everything other coaches do”?

Pharenheit wrote:Good looking gal too. Wouldn't be shocked if Raptor players shoot their shot at her

Pharenheit wrote:Good looking gal too. Wouldn't be shocked if Raptor players shoot their shot at her