UNI alum Brittni Donaldson becomes first female coach in Atlanta Hawks history
6/14/2023 3:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Panthers sharpshooter joins her third NBA team. Won 2019 NBA title alongside fellow UNI alum Nick Nurse in Toronto.
ATLANTA --- UNI women's basketball alum Brittni Donaldson has been hired as an assistant coach with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, as announced by the team on Wednesday. Donaldson, a four-year Panther veteran known for her three-point shooting abilities, becomes the first female coach in the 76-year history of the franchise.
following the 2019 NBA championship with Toronto.
The Sioux City, Iowa native was a two-year starter at guard for the Panthers and played in four Women's National Invitational (WNIT) tournaments for UNI. Donaldson played in 114 games in a Panther uniform and still holds the program's single-game record for three-pointers made with eight made shots against Drake her junior season. Donaldson was also named honorable mention MVC Scholar-Athlete during the 2013-14 season.
Having taken an unorthodox path to coaching in the NBA, Donaldson is just one of 15 women to have served as a full-time assistant coach in the over 70-year history of the NBA. After knee injuries prevented Donaldson from participating in a professional career as a player, the skills obtained as a student at UNI combined with her passion for sports set the table for a successful career.
Following her graduation from UNI in 2015 with a degree in statistics and actuarial science, Donaldson worked for CBE Companies in Cedar Falls analyzing internal data. After a stint as an analyst with STATS LLC in Chicago, Donaldson moved to Canada and teamed up with another former Panther in Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who was recently named head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.Joining Toronto as a data analyst in 2017, Donaldson was part of the Raptors staff that helped deliver the franchise's first NBA championship in 2019. In addition to coaching the Raptors' NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas, she would spend her final two years with the Raptors organization as an assistant coach under Nurse, as well as an assistant for Toronto's NBA G-League team, Raptors 905.
In 2021, Donaldson co-founded her own sports analytics company in Strata Athletics, which aims to enhance transferable life skills and keep young athletes engaged in sports longer. Alongside co-founder Chad Songey, she currently serves as the company's chief executive officer.
Following a brief stay as an assistant coach and director of coaching development with the Hamilton Honey Badgers in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Donaldson returned to the NBA this past season with the Detroit Pistons as an assistant coach and the director of coaching analytics under head coach Dwayne Casey.
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ABOUT THE ATLANTA HAWKS
Founded in 1946 as the Buffalo Bisons of the National Basketball League, the Hawks relocated to Moline, Illinois in 1946 and rebranded as the Tri-City Hawks. Joining the NBA in 1949, the team again moved north, this time to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1951 before settling in St. Louis in 1955. While in St. Louis, the Hawks made four NBA Finals appearances, and claimed their first and only league championship in 1958 after winning the NBA title in a six-game series win over the legendary Boston Celtics.
Situated in Atlanta since 1968, the Hawks have won six division championships. Playing their home games at the State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta since 1999, the Hawks are led by Quin Snyder, who enters his first full season after being named head coach midway through the 2022-23 season. Guided by two-time All-Star Trae Young, Atlanta finished the previous season with a 41-41 record in the regular season, finishing second in the Southeast Division and qualifying for the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs as the eight-seed in the Eastern Conference.