Hornets to interview former WNBA star for head-coaching job

The Charlotte Hornets may be considering a move that would make sports history.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported Monday that Charlotte has been granted permission to interview former WNBA star Lindsey Harding for their vacant head coaching job. Harding, 39, is currently the head coach of the NBA G League’s Stockton Kings.

The Hornets, who are looking for a new coach with incumbent Steve Clifford set to step down after the season, have already been granted permission to interview several other candidates as well. They are mainly current NBA assistant coaches (with one particular name seemingly emerging as the current frontrunner).

As for Harding, she was the Naismith College Player of the Year at Duke in 2007 and went with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft later that year. She played professionally for 10 seasons (both in the WNBA and overseas during offseasons) and has since gone on to a successful career as a coach.

In 2021, Harding became the head coach of the South Sudan women’s national team and then in 2022 was named the head coach of the Mexico women’s national team (a position that she still holds). Harding has also done a great job coaching men’s basketball ever since taking the Stockton Kings job in 2023. She led the Kings to a conference finals berth this season and was recently named the NBA G League Coach of the Year.

Should Harding land the job with the Hornets, she would become the first woman to be a full-time head coach in any of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues. It nearly happened a couple of times before, namely with Becky Hammon (who coached the San Antonio Spurs on an interim and acting head coach basis and was also considered for other NBA head coaching jobs) and with Alyssa Nakken (who recently became the first woman to interview for an MLB manager position). Now Harding is the one hoping to finally achieve that historic feat.