Trailblazer
Lindsey Harding making history in G League
Jim Sumner, GoDuke the Magazine
When Lindsey Harding was a point guard at Duke, head coach Gail Goestenkors told her she would be a great coach someday.
Harding thought to herself, “You’re crazy.”
Turns out Goestenkors knew what she was talking about. Earlier this spring Harding was named G League Coach of the Year, after coaching the Stockton Kings to the best record in that professional league.
Harding’s coaching skills were formed playing at Duke.
Harding came to Duke from the Houston suburb of Cypress. She didn’t start playing basketball until she was around 12 but was a fast learner. She averaged 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists per game as a senior at Cy-Fair High School, while also starring for the track and field team.
But she didn’t make the McDonald’s all-star game — much to her disappointment.
“I wasn’t really an All American. I wasn’t a Nike All-American, a McDonald’s All- American,” she recalls. “And I remember feeling pushed aside. I remember the feeling of like, why? You know when you’re a kid you’re like, ‘This person made it, but I didn’t make it,’ that kind of feeling. But it motivated me. So it’s like I’m forever grateful for not getting those awards because it fueled me.”
Goestenkors was aware of Harding’s feelings. But she also knew what she was getting.
“I could tell that really bothered her. She had a quiet confidence about her. She was going to show people. She was a supreme athlete. We loved to run and press and no one could keep up with her on a basketball court.”
Harding came to Duke for the 2002-03 season, joining a loaded team that included Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis. Goestenkors threw her into the deep end of the pool.
“She knew that if she could play, she would play. She could play,” Goestenkors says.
There was one area of concern. Harding sometimes had trouble finding her command voice.
“I remember my freshman year her (Goestenkors) telling me that I was so quiet,” says Harding. “People who know me would be shocked at that. But she said I needed to talk more. To be a champion, you have to be the one talking. So I remember her really pushing me on that my freshman season. If I was too quiet, she made me run.”
“As a point guard, you’re in charge,” Goestenkors adds. “You can’t be quiet. She knew where everybody needed to be but she didn’t always vocalize that. That was an area of growth.”
Goestenkors said she saw Harding’s coaching potential early on.
“I felt like she was so talented in so many areas that she could do whatever she wanted to. I thought she could make a great coach because she understood the game so well. She had a great combination of knowledge, will and skill and a great ability to bring people together. She had a really good feel for the pulse of the team.”
Harding led Duke to the 2003 and 2006 Final Fours, final No. 1 rankings in 2004 and 2007. She continues to lead Duke with 579 career assists and ranks fourth in minutes played, sixth in career steals. She was the 2006 and 2007 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and 2007 ACC Player of the Year. Harding won the 2007 Naismith Award and was voted first-team AP All-America.
Her number 10 jersey was retired the following year, becoming the second Duke women’s player so honored, after Beard. Elizabeth Williams made it a club of three in 2016. Harding has also been enshrined in the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame.
Phoenix made Harding the first pick of the 2007 WNBA draft and traded her to Minnesota within minutes.
“The day that I was drafted my father said to me, ‘Do you remember when you came to me upset about not making the McDonald’s All-American game? Look what happened now.’ I remember that night and I remember all that leading to that.”
Harding played nine seasons in the WNBA, suiting up for six teams. She averaged 9.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.1 steal over 270 games. She was runner-up for rookie of the year in 2007, finished 11th in MVP voting in 2012 for Atlanta and 10th the following season for Los Angeles and was voted second-team all-defense in 2010 for Washington. She also played overseas in Lithuania, Russia and Turkey.
In 2016 Harding learned that Belarus needed a point guard for Olympic competition. She attained Belarusian citizenship and represented that country in the Rio games. Belarus did not advance out of group stage play but Harding averaged 13.8 points and 4.0 assists per game.
As her playing career began to wind down, Harding wondered what next.
“I think I was in my 30s. I had already retired. I think one of the hardest things for former players to do is to move on to the next career, kind of figuring out what’s next. I had kind of an internship with the league office, and I got a chance to see how the NBA works. I was really thinking front office initially.”
Harding says she enjoyed her NBA internship in New York but missed the competitiveness of one team against another.
Then Harding got a chance to be a scout, first for the Philadelphia 76ers, where she was reunited with Duke contemporary J.J. Redick. Harding says Redick helped smooth her entry in scouting but emphasizes that she faced no sexism from players there, or in Sacramento.
She also cut her teeth coaching the South Sudan women’s team in 2021.
“That might be the most special international role I may ever get. Because it’s the newest nation and it was the first time there was ever a national team for women for South Sudan. It was great to be a part of that history there.”
Harding gave up that role but currently is the head coach of Mexico’s women’s team. She coached Mexico to eighth place in the 2023 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.
Harding went from scout to developmental coach for Sacramento. In June of 2023 the Kings named her head coach at Stockton.
Harding checked a lot of boxes. One was a long career as a point guard.
“When it comes to a point guard, you are the coach on the floor. You tend to be the leader. Everything kind of starts and stops with you. You’re making the read, you’re calling the plays. You tend to be the one that the coach is calling over all the time.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s just a point guard that could be a great coach. There could be multiple positions, but I do think that great coaches were probably great leaders as a player.”
Her experiences in scouting and player development are other assets.
“These guys are trying to make it to the big leagues, and I scouted the G League, I scouted the NBA and you can tell them there’s a lot of things that you look for that’s not even on the court. You look at body language, you look at their interactions. You see if they can take direction, you check their IQ and then of course you look at all the skills.”
Harding has succeeded at a high level and her players respect that.
“These men are professional men. I’ve done everything that they’ve wanted to do. I might be a woman but I have accomplished a lot more than most have. There’s a lot of coaches in this league who never played and they have to try to make their mark and gain their respect, even though they have not touched the ball at the highest level. These men are respectful and they just want to learn and if you know what you’re talking about and you’re willing to help them they’re gonna jump in and grab it.”
Harding works closely with Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown and his staff to make sure that she and her staff are instilling the desired team culture at the G League level.
“We want that synergy. For one we want the players on our team to know that we are extremely connected. That anything they do with me, especially if it’s a two-way (contract) or a guy on assignment, the information is getting back. Everyone knows what’s going on. It’s my job to develop them as players, in the system that Coach Brown plays.
“I put in my own things whether it’s drawing up plays that are better for my personnel, but as a whole, on any given day, a player can be sent to me and they could be playing with me for a month and all of a sudden a player (in Sacramento) gets injured and you get sent up to play. He needs to have no hiccups, just a seamless transition.”
Harding says work ethic is her point of emphasis.
“You don’t have to be good to work hard. If we come every day with the choice that I’m going to outwork my opponent, I can live with whatever the results are.”
She adds that instilling her defensive intensity “is probably one of the toughest things to coach in the NBA or G League. These guys are good. Everyone likes to score so to get them to buy into the other side of the ball, I put a lot of energy in that. Mike Brown is a defensive minded coach. So, if you want to play for the Kings, you have to play that side of the ball.”
Stockton finished first in the 2024 G League standings with 24 wins and 10 losses and Harding was voted G League Coach of the Year, the first woman so honored.
It seems inevitable that a woman will someday be a head coach in the NBA and Harding wants to be in the mix. “I don’t know when it will be and it’s really not up to me. It’s really up to the people that make those decisions.”
Harding and Goestenkors stay close and the former Duke coach says nothing Harding does surprises her.
“She’s led such a unique life. She’s had to work hard. She’s one of the most positive human beings I’ve ever been around. Her energy is infectious. She’s going to find out what she needs to know, who she needs to talk to and work her tail off to be the best she can be.”
Harding recognizes her role as a Black woman doing things no Black woman has ever done.
“I think being able to win awards like that takes a lot of work, takes a great staff and it takes a lot of luck. I do understand that I am a trailblazer in doing these jobs. I don’t think about it all the time because if you start thinking about it, it does carry quite a bit of weight. I’m just so happy and lucky to be in this position.”
This story originally appeared in the 15.11 issue of GoDuke The Magazine . Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.