INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Cavaliers officially open the 2019-20 NBA season Wednesday night in Orlando, but while new head coach John Beilein might be the biggest story, another new name on his bench is also getting a lot of attention.
Lindsay Gottlieb recently signed a four-year contract to serve as an assistant on Beilein's staff. She is the first female coach in Cavs franchise history, and one of the first in the entire league.
A native of Scarsdale, New York, the 42-year-old Gottlieb played basketball at Brown University before eventually landing head coaching jobs at UC Santa Barbara and Cal. She spent the last eight seasons at the latter, taking the Golden Bears women's team to the NCAA Final Four in 2013.
WHO IS LINDSAY GOTTLIEB: Meet the Cavaliers' new assistant coach
3News' Jay Crawford recently sat down with Gottlieb to talk basketball, her move to Ohio, and how she's jiving with her new team.
JC: What is your basketball story?
LG: "I played everything growing up, I think like every young kid should, and it wasn’t really until high school that I specialized in basketball and wanted to play in college. I played at Brown University, but I tore my ACL prior to my senior year of high school. That sort of changed the trajectory of my college career, not that I would have been a superstar, but I was even further down the bench. Midway through my college career I decided I wanted to get into coaching.
"I got my first job offer the day after I graduated from Brown, and I've been coaching every single day since."
JC: A lot of folks write down goals, what was your ultimate coaching job when you were young?
LG: "I never wrote down a goal that said, 'I want to get to the NBA,' but in terms of my passion and love for basketball, I was always seeking out more knowledge. Once I was a power five head coach in women’s basketball, the next place I would seek that knowledge was with people in the NBA."
JC: Was this an opportunity you sought out, or did they come to you?
LG: "They came to me. When Koby reached out, I thought it would be more of a philosophical conversation, 'Hey what do you think about women in the NBA?' and 'Where do you see yourself in 10 years?' That was the conversation I had with other NBA people, but the conversation with Koby was a lot more specific."
JC: When the offer was presented, what was going through your mind?
LG: “It was a step-by-step process to say 'Wow, can this really be happening?'
At one point, my husband Patrick said, 'what do you want your legacy to be?' That's when the conversation shifted from the ability to impact the 10 or 15 young women I was coaching each year, to the ability to impact more people broadly."
JC: Was there a concern of transitioning from coaching women to coaching men?
LG: "The guys have been the least of any worries, they've just been so receptive right away."
JC: How have the guys been?
LG: "They’ve been unbelievable. What they crave is authenticity. They don't want a female trying to be a guy, and I don't think they want a guy trying to pretend to be something they're not. They just want authenticity. They want to know you'll make them better and are invested in them and care about them."
JC: What do you most love about being a coach?
LG: "The impact you have on people. It's figuring out how to get a group of people to accomplish something together that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise without your influence, and it’s figuring out what makes these guys tick and how I can make them better at what they do."