With the season underway, the Kings keep making moves to strengthen their staff, bringing in former coach of the Sacramento Monarchs, Jenny Boucek. Per the Kings, Boucek will join Joerger’s staff Assistant Player Development coach. This is Boucek’s first job in the NBA. After an injury cut short her professional playing career in 1999, she landed her first coaching job as an assistant with the Washington Mystics, and spent nearly two decades around the WNBA as both a head coach and assistant.

Boucek should prove to be a valuable addition to the Kings bench. Aside from her tenure with the Monarchs, Boucek also served as head coach for the Seattle Storm, where she was recently let go. As an assistant coach, Boucek was a member of two of the Seattle Storm’s championship teams in 2004 and 2010.

With this hiring, Boucek becomes the third female coach in NBA history, and the second with the Kings. Becky Hammond is the only other active female coach. Hopefully the NBA moves closer to the right direction, and more women get a shot to join its benches and front offices, but it is good to see the Kings continue to push toward that direction. With nearly 20 years of prior coaching experience, Boucek should prove to be a valuable addition to the Kings bench. 

One interesting note from ESPN’s story about the signing. Former Kings Assistant Nancy Lieberman is apparently no longer with the team. Though the team has said she had an advisory role, I am not sure whether this means she has officially cut her ties with the team, or if she’s simply taking care of the same family issues which took her from the sideline.