The past few months have been really good for women in the world of professional sports. First there was Becky Hammon who was the first female to coach a summer league team after already being an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs and then after that there was Jen Welter who became the NFL's first female coach when the Arizona Cardinals hired her. Now we have the first full-time in-game female analyst in NBA history and that is Stephanie Ready, according to Tim Daniels of Bleacher Report.
Ready will be a color commentator on the Charlotte Hornets TV broadcast alongside Eric Collins and Dell Curry on Fox Sports Southeast. Ready was previously the sideline reporter for the Hornets and has been part of their broadcasts for more than ten years but has said that being a game analyst was her ultimate goal.
"This is actually the reason I got into television in the first place, I always wanted to be a game analyst. I have a passion for the game of basketball and being a coach you teach the game and you learn how to explain the game to people who may not understand it. I thought being a game analyst on television would be perfect, because that's what you get to do," said Ready.
Ready has broken ground before including back in 2001 when she became the first woman to coach a men's professional team when she was at the helm for the NBDL's Greenville Groove. Aside from that Ready was also one of the first female assistant coaches in Division I college basketball at Coppin State and eventually earned the role of full-time recruiting assistant which was another first for a female.
As for how well she will do Ready has been around basketball and the NBA for a long time and that should allow her to move into analyzing games fairly easily. Curry, one of her broadcast partners, has full confidence in her.
"She knows the game very well. She knows the players. She knows strategy, plays, as an ex-player, whether you're male or female, if you're an ex-player, you should know your craft and she definitely does," said Curry.
Ready is now part of what is becoming a major movement to get women more involved in professional sports in all aspects of the game. It will be interesting to see who the next woman that breaks ground will be and where she will be doing it.
