INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers' team practice ahead of a crucial Game 6 of the NBA Finals was a historic moment for the league. Assistant coach Jenny Boucek, who is the first woman to be a staff assistant coach on an NBA Finals team, was focused on the task at hand, but her presence on the floor was a groundbreaking one.
Boucek, who has years of experience coaching in the WNBA, where she also played for the Cleveland Rockers in the 1997 inaugural season, was hired by the Sacramento Kings in 2017 as their third female assistant coach. She has since followed head coach Rick Carlisle to the Indiana Pacers and has been instrumental in improving the team's defense and implementing a new system that maximizes their skill set.
"I don't think twice about it on a day-to-day basis," Boucek told NBA News after Wednesday's team practice. "I just want to coach the team, go to war with them, try to help us win a championship."
While the Pacers are behind 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, this is the closest they've been to a championship since losing to Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant's Lakers in 2000. And this year's run is one that few people predicted.
"We're very aware that this season has been somewhat magical for us," Boucek said. "There's been a grace to what we're doing and a joy and a cohesiveness."
Despite her late-term pregnancy that would prevent her from traveling months into the 2018 season, at least three NBA teams worked to recruit her. The Dallas Mavericks even built a non-traveling coaching position for her initial months. When she followed Carlisle to the Indiana Pacers, the team agreed to travel with her daughter and a caregiver on road trips lasting more than three days.
Boucek says she takes the responsibility of being a role model for young girls and women seriously. "I don't like the spotlight being on me," she cautioned, "but I do understand 'big picture purpose' and I do feel a responsibility to represent women and mothers in a certain way."
As for the future, while Carlisle repeatedly says he sees her becoming the NBA's first woman head coach one day, Boucek says it's not a goal. However, she admits that she never wanted to be a head coach and held the position in the WNBA twice.
"If my next assignment, and I feel it's a purposeful assignment, is to be the head coach in the NBA, I will be very honored to take that honor on and represent women and just show that different types of leaders can be successful," she said.
The Indiana Pacers and the NBA are setting an example for all corporations by accommodating Boucek's unique situation and allowing her to be a part of history.
