Page 18 - ARUBA TODAY

A18
Wednesday 10 OctOber 2018

NBA coaches

box get a BREES
little more

diverse during

offseason

By BRIAN MAHONEY WAY
The NBA coaching box is
looking far more diverse
these days.
When the season starts
next week, there will be
the league's first head
coach born and raised
outside North America and
the first Hispanic-American
full-time head coach. And
there's a real chance that
before long, someone like
Becky Hammon could be-
come the first woman to
lead a NBA club.
In a league where mi-
norities make up the over-
whelming majority of stars
on the floor, there's still a
movement to make those
same diverse strides in who
is calling the shots on the
sideline.
"The league is starting to
move in a direction with
the coaches of being
more diverse," said Mem-
phis coach J.B. Bickerstaff,
whose father also was a
head coach in the NBA.
"And it's just about op-
portunity and everybody
wants an equal playing
field. And I think when you
get an equal playing field
you know people from all
backgrounds can rise to
the occasion."
That's what the Suns be-
lieved when they hired
Igor Kokoskov, a native of
Serbia, and the Charlotte
Hornets did when they
tabbed James Borrego —
the league's first full-time
Hispanic coach. Borrego's
whose seat on the front
row of the Spurs' bench
was inherited by Hammon
after she was promoted by Brees breaks NFL mark for yards passing
San Antonio coach Gregg
Popovich — after a sum-
mer where Hammon was a New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) reacts to a touchdown carry by running back Mark Ingram, not pictured, in the first
candidate to take over in half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in New Orleans, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018.
Milwaukee. Associated Press
Continued on Page 23 Page 20