The Los Angeles Lakers are no strangers to making history in the NBA, and at this point, they’re probably comfortable in that role. The team surprised everyone when they made a wild trade last season to bring Luka Doncic to Los Angeles to pair with star player LeBron James, which ended up being the biggest news to come out of the 2024-25 season.
Now, the Lakers are making history again. This time, it has to do with their coaching staff. Head coach JJ Redick is heading into his second year with the Lakers, and he has some big goals for the 2025-26 season, because let’s face it. The Lakers didn’t have the 2024-25 run that they wanted.
One of the Lakers’ assistant coaches is none other than Lindsey Harding, who played at Duke University in the early-to-mid 2000s and went on to play in the WNBA. Now, Harding is serving an extra important role with the Lakers this summer.
Lindsey Harding of the Los Angeles Lakers Makes NBA History
Harding is making history as only the second female ever to serve as head coach at the NBA Summer League. According to GTV Hoops, Becky Hammon was the first. Harding is currently an assistant for the Lakers and also helped take the G League team the Stockton Kings to a No. 1 seed in the Western Conference Finals during the 2023-24 season.
She also made history in 2024 when she became the first woman to be hired as an assistant coach by the Los Angeles Lakers, so there are plenty of milestones all around. “She was also the first woman in G League history to win Coach of the Year,” GTV Hoops adds.
“I used to watch her career she can play,” one follower commented on GTV Hoops’ Instagram post with the news. “Harding might be the first female NBA HC one day,” another stated. “Representation matters. This is beautiful to see,” one more added. “I want her to be a head coach one day,” another said.
The Importance of Player Development
Around the time that the Lakers hired Harding, Redick talked about the importance of player development, which, of course, is a big part of what any assistant coach does.
“The player development program we’re trying to build is, is holistic,” Redick said as reported by the Los Angeles Times. “I think oftentimes when people talk about player development, they talk about ball handling, and shooting, and passing, and certainly the mechanics of playing basketball are an important part of player development. But it’s also tactical. It’s about reads, it’s about incorporating film, incorporating analytics. We will hopefully in the next few days or couple weeks hire a director of player development program that sees my vision.”
He added, “It’s nutrition. It’s how you take care of your body, your work in the weight room. There’s also, I think, a big part of player development, and it’s for someone who has lived in this league a long time, a big part of this is, is the mental development.”
Harding is certainly doing her part to develop the Lakers into a winning franchise.
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