Lindsey Harding, who spent four years on the Sacramento Kings bench and took over as the head coach of the franchise’s G League affiliate this season, is now on the list for the Charlotte Hornets’ head coaching position.
The Hornets have been granted permission to interview her, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
ESPN Sources: Charlotte has been granted permission to interview Sacramento’s G League coach Lindsey Harding for head coaching opening. Harding - a former No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick — was G League’s coach of the year for Stockton and advanced to Western Conference Finals. pic.twitter.com/PlAYLhW70m
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 8, 2024
Harding guided the Stockton Kings to a 24-10 record this season, the best in the G League’s Western Conference, and took the team to the Western Conference Finals. That earned her the Coach of the Year award in her first season.
Harding played her college ball at Duke and was the Phoenix Mercury’s No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft. She went on to play nine seasons in the league. After that, she worked in the Toronto and Philadelphia organizations before coming to Sacramento.
Harding deserves a serious chance and let’s hope that’s what Charlotte gives her. Former Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammond had multiple interviews for NBA head coaching jobs but said she felt some of them were not serious and were just ownership/management checking a box in the process. Eventually, Hammond left the NBA to take a head coaching job with the Las Vegas Aces and led that team to back-to-back WNBA titles. (One woman’s name who has come up in conversations with league sources before is Dawn Staley, the head coach of the now NCAA Champion South Carolina Gamecocks. She has the basketball acumen and presence to do the job but has shown no interest publicly in making that jump or one to the WNBA.)
Charlotte is looking for a coach to replace Steve Clifford, who is stepping down after this season.
The Hornets are casting a wide net in their coaching search and Harding joins Charles Lee (Boston), Jordi Fernandez (Sacramento), Kevin Young (Phoenix) and David Adelman (Denver) as coaches we know have been interviewed in this first round. There are likely more than that.
