I can't speak to it exactly, because I've never lived that exact life, but I've been hearing that criticism since I was coaching. There are plenty of examples of head coaches, present and past, that did not play in the NBA -- that did not even play in college, some of them. You work your way up from being a college manager to an NBA head coach, and if you happen to be a man, no one questions that path.

Stephanie Ready

Stephanie Ready is an American broadcaster for the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Hornets and a former basketball coach who became the first female coach of a men's professional league team in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, she was an assistant coach for the now defunct Greenville Groove of the National Basketball Development League. After several years as the Hornets' sideline reporter and host, Ready was named an analyst on August 27, 2015, making her the first full-time female NBA game analyst. Ready was also a part-time sideline reporter for The NBA on TNT during the 2006 and 2007 NBA Playoffs, and the WNBA Playoffs on ESPN2 during 2006. Also in 2006 and 2007, Ready worked as a sideline reporter during the first and second rounds of the Women's Final Four of college basketball for ESPN2. Ready is an alumna of Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

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