Throughout the summer of 2001, John Lucas would stop in at the practice court inside Gund Arena to watch the Cleveland Rockers practice. He was hired as the new head coach of the Cavaliers in June of that year, and Lucas worked to build a relationship with Dan Hughes, who was in his second season as head coach of the WNBA affiliate.
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He sat in on practices and attended their games, and noticed one of the assistant coaches, Lisa Boyer. He observed her precise and pointed approach to coaching, and the fluid way she could move in and out of a group conversation without disrupting Hughes’ flow. He recognized a true passion for the game, and noted how the women listened and responded to her coaching.
Almost 20 years later, they each have slightly different memories of how Boyer ended up helping out at a Cavs practice in early October. But they share a similar sentiment that her gender didn’t matter; what mattered was her understanding of the game and her knowledge of coaching. Looking back on it now, they recognize it as a milestone in the history of women in sports: Lisa Boyer became the first woman to work with an NBA team as part of the coaching staff.
“When Lisa came, it was almost like a form of integration,” Lucas said.
Hughes saw those same qualities when Boyer joined his staff in 2000. She brought with her the experience of being a head coach of the Richmond/Philadelphia Rage for two seasons in the American Basketball League (ABL), which was one of the first independent professional women’s leagues. When the league folded in 1998 after just two years, she was out of a coaching job for about 18 months before coming to Cleveland.
She also brought her experience as a four-year player at Ithaca College. She graduated in 1979 and went on to coach at six different colleges from 1981 to 1996, flipping between assistant and head coach. At the time, that was as high as Boyer’s coaching goals reached, other than a distant dream of being an Olympic coach.
“(College) was really the only avenue for women,” said Boyer, currently the associate head coach at South Carolina. “There was nothing else, that was kind of the highest echelon.”
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After Boyer’s second season as a Rockers assistant, she had an idea. She was staying in Cleveland that fall, scouting and preparing for next season. Hughes also lived in a suburb and planned to attend Lucas’ training camp practices to watch. She asked Hughes if he thought Lucas would mind if she attended a practice.
Lucas would hold those practices around 6 a.m., as part of his effort to establish a disciplined culture for the Cavs. Hughes remembers sitting in on one early in training camp in 2001 and passing along Boyer’s question.
“So I talked to John (Lucas), and John said, ‘Yeah have her come.’ He said, ‘Matter of fact, why isn’t she helping us out?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know.’ And he goes to me, ‘Do you think she would want to do that?’ And I said, ‘I think she would,’” Hughes recounted.
On that early October day, Boyer woke up for her own early workout and then headed right to the Cavs practice. She sat in the stands with her notebook in hand, planning just to watch. Lucas approached her and introduced himself.
He asked her to come down onto the floor with the other coaches and players. Lucas brought her into the huddle, introduced her to the other assistant coaches and players and said she was going to help them in that morning’s practice.
“So we went through the practice and they were doing double sessions, and he said, ‘We’re having another one at 2 p.m., be here.’ I said, ‘OK, all right.’ So I came back, and he’s like, ‘I want you to help us all year long,’” Boyer said.
Lucas says he wanted to hire her as a part of his staff, but he ran into internal opposition. He wouldn’t specify from whom. “Some people just weren’t really open to having a woman in the game,” Lucas later said. “But I never looked at her like that.”
Lucas also pointed out that while the Rockers and the Cavs were under the same ownership, Boyer was being paid by the Rockers. She was not paid for her work with the Cavs. So he treated her as a volunteer assistant coach, meaning she was not listed as a part of the Cavs’ staff in the media guide for that season.
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None of that bothered Boyer. She cared more about the experience of working with an NBA team.
“I was a sponge and just listened to everything and tried to help out and do the individual workouts with the guys. It was just an experience that I knew most people didn’t have,” she said. “I mean, there’s a lot of men that would have wanted to be in my position, would have wanted to have been an assistant coach with them, you know? I was blessed, it was an incredible thing.”
Lucas wanted Boyer to be out on the floor in practice, although she preferred to stay on the sidelines. Over time, she helped create transition and defensive drills and help run them in practice, and also worked with assistant coach Jerry Eaves and the guards. She would shift and sometimes work out with 7-foot-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas, as well.
Boyer continued to be a part of the coaches meetings, using her scouting knowledge to provide input on particular games. She also helped coach the Cavs’ defensive transition and tracked their stops in games along with other stats.
“Well, one of the coaches meetings, one of the guys had to give how many times we got in transition, how many times we scored, how many times we didn’t score, and when we went from transition into our plays, and we went from plays to random,” Lucas said. “He would always have to go to the film to be able to do that. Lisa would have it at halftime and at the end of the game, and every time she was right on point. And I used to tease them saying, ‘Why the hell do I need the video when I got Lisa?’”
Boyer wasn’t allowed to travel with the team, or sit on the bench. So she sat behind the team at every home game. She went into the locker room just like the other coaches. At one of the first home games of the season, Lucas went into the locker room before Boyer to make sure the players were dressed when she walked in. From then on, they always kept their shirts on. She felt the level of respect Lucas had for her, and it translated to how the players embraced her.
“That’s what I think is my most cherished memory is that I never, ever had an issue with any of those men,” she said. “And they were always respectful and listened.”
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The Cavs finished with a 29-53 record that season, finishing seventh in the division. Boyer stayed with the Rockers for the 2002 summer season, but then headed to coach at Temple alongside Dawn Staley. Lucas was fired about halfway through the 2002-03 season, with the Cavs at 8-34. The Cavs as a franchise then went on to acquire LeBron James in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Boyer has not returned to the WNBA or the NBA since she went back to collegiate basketball. She and Staley have coached together since Boyer joined her at Temple. She became the associate head coach of the South Carolina women’s program in 2008, helping the Gameco*cks win five SEC titles in six years and the 2017 NCAA championship.
Some of her players at South Carolina aspire to play in the WNBA, and she can have conversations with them about the level of work required to make it professionally. She ties that knowledge back to her time with the Rockers and the Cavs.
“I just really think that I was fortunate enough to be around a guy that got it, that wanted to give people opportunities, and I was just fortunate enough to have that opportunity,” Boyer said. “I’ll never forget it.”
When Becky Hammon became the first full-time woman assistant coach for the Spurs in 2014, Lucas reached out to Boyer, reminding her of her early feat back in 2001. Lucas told her that the announcement of Hammon as the first woman assistant coach in the NBA was wrong — it was later clarified that Hammon was the first full-time paid woman assistant coach. Lucas wanted people to know of Boyer’s contribution, but Boyer didn’t care. In her eyes, it was always about Lucas and his vision anyway.
“I’m so happy that the women are in it now because there’s a lot of women out there that, you know, used to get mad because men can coach women, but why can’t women coach men?” Boyer said. “And so, that in itself is pretty frustrating. So I’m glad that it’s hopefully starting to change the tide a little bit.”
There are 11 women currently serving as assistant coaches in the NBA. But there’s always a first, and Boyer holds that spot in history, even if very few people know it.
(Photo: Darrell Walker / Getty Images)
