The Charlotte Hornets requested and received permission to interview Sacramento Kings G League coach Lindsey Harding for their upcoming head-coaching vacancy, ESPN and The Athletic reported Monday.
Harding just completed her first season as head coach of the Stockton (Calif.) Kings, and she became the first women selected the G League Coach of the Year. Stockton produced a league-best 24-10 record but was eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday with a 114-107 defeat to the Oklahoma City Blues in the single-game Western Conference finals.
Should she land the job in Charlotte, she would become the first female head coach of an NBA team — or any team in the four major U.S./Canada sports leagues.
The Hornets recently announced that Steve Clifford would be ending his second stint as the team’s head coach at season’s end. Charlotte is 19-59, tied for the third-worst record in the NBA.
Harding, 39, was selected first overall in 2007 WNBA draft pick out of Duke after winning the Naismith National Player of the Year. She spent nine seasons in the WNBA, playing guard for the Minnesota Lynx (2007-08), Washington Mystics (2009-10), Atlanta Dream (2011-12), Los Angeles Sparks (2013-14), New York Liberty (2016) and Phoenix Mercury (2016).
In 270 career games (210 starts), she averaged 9.8 points, 4.0 assists and 2.9 rebounds.
Harding’s playing career also included stints in Turkey, Lithuania and Russia.
Harding worked as a development coach for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Kings before she was an assistant coach for Sacramento last season.
Harding is also currently the head coach of the Mexican women’s national team after starting her international coaching career with the South Sudan women’s national team in 2021.
–Field Level Media
