Kelly Krauskopf and the Indiana Pacers are reportedly making history.
On Monday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com cited NBA sources who said the Eastern Conference team will hire Krauskopf as an assistant general manager. Krauskopf will be the first woman to fill such a role after serving as the WNBA’s Indiana Fever’s president and general manager in the past.
She will work with general manager Chad Buchanan, executive general manager Peter Dinwiddie and president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard, among others.
Wojnarowski pointed to the “growing number of women in front office basketball roles in the NBA,” but Krauskopf will be the first assistant general manager after an accomplished career. That includes 17 years as the Fever’s president and general manager, overseeing the Pacers’ esports team in the NBA2K league and helping select the roster for USA Basketball’s women’s national team.
By contrast, Major League Baseball has seen two women as assistant general managers—Jean Afterman with the New York Yankees and Kim Ng with the Los Angeles Dodgers. On the NFL side, Amy Trask was the CEO of the Oakland Raiders for 16 years as the first woman to hold such a position in the league.
Krauskopf, who was also the WNBA’s first director of operations, helped lead the Fever to a championship and USA Basketball to three gold medals during her tenures.
She joins a Pacers team that has won seven games in a row and positioned itself into a tie with the Milwaukee Bucks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
