Sacramento Kings G League coach Lindsey Harding has agreed on a deal to become an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Harding — the G League Coach of the Year for the Stockton Kings — reconnects with coach JJ Redick to join his staff. Harding and Redick have a long history that dates back to her years as a player development coach with the Philadelphia 76ers and an All-American at Duke.
Harding joins Nate McMillan, Scott Brooks and Greg St. Jean on the Lakers bench this season.
Harding, 39, has made a steady climb onto the NBA bench after retiring from a nine-year WNBA playing career. Harding was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft. She reached the Western Conference finals in her one season in Stockton after working as a player development coach with the Sixers and Kings.
Harding interviewed for the Charlotte Hornets’ head-coaching job that ultimately went to Charles Lee, sources said.
Former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, the father of Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, has died. He was 69.
An official cause of Bryant’s death was not announced as of Tuesday morning. La Salle University, where Bryant played and coached, said in a statement that Bryant “was a beloved member of the Explorer family and will be dearly missed.”
Longtime Philadelphia-area basketball coach Fran Dunphy, who currently is the head coach at La Salle, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bryant recently suffered a massive stroke.
Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 in Calabasas, California, as the group was making its way to a basketball tournament. Joe and Pam Bryant, who were married for nearly a half-century, had a sometimes frosty relationship with Kobe, but they were in the front row for the memorial service in Los Angeles about a month after Kobe and Gianna died.
“Sending our condolences upon hearing the news of my father in law’s passing,” Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s widow, posted Tuesday on her Instagram story. “We hoped things would’ve been different. Although the times we spent together were few, he was always sweet and nice to be around. Kobe loved him very much.”
