The Dallas Mavericks are hiring Kristi Toliver of the Los Angeles Sparks as an assistant coach. This will be Toliver’s second NBA assistant coaching job after spending 2 seasons with the Washington Wizards. Toliver says coaching has always been a passion of hers.
“Coaching has always been on my radar just because I want to stay involved in the game. I know that I love the NBA; I grew up around the NBA. So, now as I’m getting older … it’s like, ‘Okay, let me see if coaching is what I want to pursue.’ And it is — 1,000 percent. It would be a dream.”
Toliver currently plays with the Los Angeles Sparks and is an 11 year WNBA vet. The Chicago Sky drafted Toliver with the third pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft. After playing her rookie year with the Sky she was traded to Los Angeles. Toliver played seven seasons with the Sparks and helped them win a WNBA Championship in 2016. After the championship season, Toliver signed as a free agent with the Washington Mystics.
Toliver spent three seasons with the Mystics and won another WNBA title in 2019 before returning to the Sparks. She is currently signed with the Sparks through the 2022 season. So far in her 11 seasons, Toliver has won two WNBA Championships, a Most Improved Player Award, and made three WNBA All-Star teams.
Toliver got her first taste of NBA coaching in 2019 with the Washington Wizards. While in Washington, she could not be fairly compensated because WNBA rules state that teams could only pay players a maximum of $10,000 for work in the offseason. The Wizards and her former team, the Mystics, have the same ownership group which meant there was effectively a cap on her offseason earning potential. That changed with the introduction of the new CBA’s “Toliver provision” to remove certain offseason earning stipulations.
Toliver will be joining Jason Kidd’s new coaching staff in Dallas. Kidd is 183–190 as a head coach over five seasons with the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, and has spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. Kidd is one of the best point guards in NBA history, sporting a career resume that includes 10 All-Star appearances, five-assist titles, and nine All-Defense selections.
Toliver knows the game of basketball and will be an excellent coach for the Mavericks. Her hiring comes on the heels of another offseason where Becky Hammon was brought in, but ultimately passed over for several vacant head coaching positions.
-LaMarr Fields
Twitter: @raiderway83