Commentary: NBA dragging in hiring of women

When will league make serious inroads when it comes to filling on-court jobs?

? Major league baseball came quite close to shattering a glass ceiling this week.

With little national fanfare, the Los Angeles Dodgers gave serious consideration to promoting their assistant general manager, Kim Ng, to general manager. Ultimately, they settled on Ned Colletti, the San Francisco Giants’ assistant GM. But Ng, 36, came close to becoming the first woman and Asian-American to be named to a GM position.

Which got us to thinking about why the NBA has yet to make any serious inroads when it comes to putting women in prominent on-court positions.

On the business side, women have had influence for years in such positions with teams as comptroller, general counsel, and vice presidents of various departments from finance to community relations.

Some have risen higher. Susan O’Malley has been president of the Washington Wizards since 1991, with complete control of the team’s business side. She reports only to owner Abe Pollin. Jeanie Buss is the Los Angeles Lakers’ executive VP of business operations. Anucha Browne Sanders is the New York Knicks’ senior VP of marketing and business operations.

At the NBA office, two of the league’s most respected suits are Heidi Ueberroth, the executive vice president of NBA Entertainment and Brenda Spoonemore, NBA Entertainment’s senior vice president of interactive services.

Eight women are in charge of their teams’ media relations departments. Kathy Weber is one of the Chicago Bulls’ team physicians. Michelle Leget is the Houston Rockets’ assistant athletic trainer.

But we’re talking about women on the court and in the film room, making decisions about personnel, playing time, trades, hirings and firings. By contrast, nothing has stopped male ex-players and coaches from dominating the decision-making and coaching ranks of women’s college basketball and the WNBA.

“I do think a woman could break into a personnel position in this league,” said Joe Dumars, the Detroit Pistons’ GM. “The bottom line is who gets the job done best.”

Male coaches and personnel types have long admired Pat Summitt, the University of Tennessee women’s coach. The school offered Summitt the chance to coach its men’s team a few years ago and Summitt politely said she liked the job she already had.

So how about Cheryl Miller, the Basketball Hall of Famer who works for TNT? Or Nancy Lieberman, another Hall of Fame member, who coached in the WNBA and now does studio and color work for ESPN? Surely, the brains of Ann Meyers Drysdale – another Hall of Fame inductee – could help an NBA team.

But the obstacles for a potential woman NBA boss may be even greater today than a few years ago.

“I have 20 ex-all stars who call me for jobs right now,” Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe said. “So (women) would be competing with those guys. These jobs have just gotten so competitive, and that’s not just coaches and GMs. You have to be in the business a long time, and it’s unusual for anybody to get a job. The odds are against you.”