Hawks hire Brittni Donaldson, team’s first female coach

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Atlanta Hawks have hired Detroit Pistons assistant coach Brittni Donaldson for the same role, the team confirmed to Atlanta News First. She will be the first female coach in team history.

Donaldson’s role will reportedly focus on analytics, a similar role to the one she played in Detroit. She played baseball for the Northern Iowa Panthers from 2011 to 2015 and graduated from the university with a degree in statistics and actuarial sciences.

Donaldson joined the Toronto Raptors staff in 2017 and was promoted to assistant coach in 2019, becoming part of the Raptors staff that won the NBA Finals. She later became an assistant coach for the Raptors’ minor league team Raptors 905 and the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Hamilton Honey Badgers.

She is one of seven currently active female coaches in the NBA.