In what has already been a banner year for women in basketball, former National Player of the Year Lindsey Harding earned another honor.
Harding was named on Tuesday as the NBA G League Coach of the Year, becoming the first woman to win the award. The G League serves as the NBA's developmental league.
G League head coaches and general managers vote on the yearly award.
Harding led the Stockton Kings to the G League's best overall record with a 24-10 ledger. Her squad is set to take on Santa Cruz on Thursday in the league playoffs.
Stockton is the G League affiliate of the NBA's Sacramento Kings. While it's nice for G League teams to pick up wins, a measure of success is how players develop while in the minors. Only time will tell how well players will blossom, but by all accounts, Harding has done a wonderful job developing players in the minor league.
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Her efforts as Stockton's head coach earned the praise of Sacramento coach Mike Brown, a longtime NBA coach.
"It's a heck of a job by those guys," Brown said about Stockton's coaching staff. "I mean, just a whale of a job that she and her staff have done throughout the course of the year. We talked about the No. 1 seeding throughout the playoffs. For her and her staff, led by her, to get Coach of the Year, that's well deserving and just great things continue to happen to the Kings organization."
"Way to go, girl," Brown added.
As a player, Harding had a nine-year career in the WNBA, playing for six different teams. Prior to her stint in the WNBA, she was the Naismith College Player of the Year while with Duke. She was on two Duke squads that made the Final Four.
Several former G League Coaches of the Year have become NBA head coaches, including Quin Snyder and Nick Nurse.
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