Stephanie Ready has achieved a handful of historic marks and her trailblazer status in basketball broke down what many thought would be an impenetrable barrier. The Coppin State University graduate is the first woman to coach a professional men’s basketball team and is also the first full-time female NBA analyst.
Ready, a native of Takoma Park , Maryland, a Washington, D.C. suburb, was a star basketball and volleyball player in high school before heading to Coppin State. As a four-year starter for the women’s basketball program, Ready was a prominent cog in the system. Graduating with a degree in psychology, Ready was asked to hold off on graduate school to help coach the women’s volleyball team, which made her one of Division I’s youngest coaches.
Ready was then hired as an assistant coach for Coppin State’s men’s basketball program, just the third woman to make it to that level at the time. This led to Ready’s post as an assistant coach for the National Basketball Association’s Development League, where she helped guide the Greenville Groove.
Ready’s latest feat is her 2015 hiring as a full-time analyst covering NBA games for the Charlotte Hornets after her work as a sideline reporter for TNT and for the WNBA.
Ready says that she’s open to coaching in the NBA should the opportunity presents itself.
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