Raptors 905 proving the NBA is no longer only a man’s world
G League team sets the bar in progressive hires from front office, to coaching staff and broadcast booth.
When it comes to the NBA G League, call-ups don’t just come in the form of players. It’s front office members, trainers, coaches and more who look to cut their teeth in the minor league and get a glimpse of what life is like in the NBA.
The league has become more progressive in recent years with the hiring of more minority head coaches, but in a male-dominated realm, are there opportunities for women as well?
The Raptors organization is leading the way with a number of women holding positions staunchly held by men throughout the history of the NBA. Where else will you find a team with women on the sideline as an assistant, in the broadcast booth, and in the front office managing basketball operations?
These are the stories of three women who are bucking tradition and are likely the future of the NBA.
Shelby Weaver
Growing up playing basketball in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Shelby Weaver always knew she would find her way back to the sport she always loved, and she’s been doing that for six years.
Weaver joined the sports world shortly after college by simply taking a chance on herself.
“I decided to move to Toronto, three days after graduating, without a job,” Weaver said. “I made a calculated enough risk that I made a deal with my parents to support me for one month to grind this out and see this through.”
Sure enough, Weaver found her way through working with Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment (the company that owns the Raptors) working on the business side.
After a few years bouncing around on the business end, and working on the foundation side, one thing led to another and through perseverance she found herself with an opportunity she craved.
Called by Raptors General Manager Masai Ujiri about a G League opportunity, Weaver accepted the position and served as the Manager of Basketball Operations during the team’s first two seasons.
For Weaver, the consummate professionalism from the Raptors organization has made her job incredibly easy.
“I’ve been lucky enough,” Weaver said.
Weaver credits her mentors as valuable cogs to the organization, such as Kim Carter, Vice President of Human Resources with Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, and Teresa Resch, Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Development.
This is not diversity for the sake of it. There is no token female here. Women have a constant and active role in the Raptors organization and it shows with their progressive hiring.
“I’ve never felt like I’m checking a diversity box,” Weaver said. “We didn’t just hire Nicki (Gross) because she checked a female box. She’s a really good coach and she works her ass off.”
Though the Raptors are accepting and progressive, Weaver still faces demeaning comments and acts from outside the organization.
“I’ve had people pet me on the head. I’ve had people call me ‘sweetie’ in a real derogatory term, and I’ve had the standard here and there of someone grabbing your butt our touching your leg in a real weird way,” Weaver said. “I’ve had situations where people have said you might be out here to find a husband, but I’m out here for a job.”
But despite the disgusting tone she’s been approached with in her career, Weaver remains positive.
“I have no trouble speaking up,” Weaver said. “It’s almost a duty for me to speak up and I’m put in a position by people that support me doing that.”
What advice does Weaver have for other women looking to join the sports world who might be second guessing themselves?
“Acknowledge the issues for what they are but forge forward like they don’t matter,” Weaver said. “All women should kind of forge forward. We need more people to step up. The four years prior to me being on the basketball side I would get so many LinkedIn messages wanting to know how to get into the sports industry. When I go to the basketball side I’ve had maybe one female who wanted to be on the basketball side. I haven’t figured out where the divide is, but why that gap falls off so sharply.”
“Don’t think about all the negative stories, move forward as if nobody’s ever going to stop you.”
Nicki Gross
Nicki Gross has spent two seasons in the G League as an assistant, but got her break as a video coordinator for the Bakersfield Jam in 2013 after serving as a graduate manager for the men’s basketball team at Monmouth University.
She is preparing for the upcoming season, relishing in her team’s success from last season having recently received her championship ring.
But being a woman in a male-dominated field has never phased Gross in her career.
“It’s funny I almost don’t see it,” Gross said. “When I was coming up through grad school, I didn’t realize til someone told me ‘There’s no women in the NBA’. I’ve played women’s sports and I have never seen a difference of men’s basketball or women’s basketball. It’s just basketball.”
One current NBA G League General Manager knows Gross all too well from his days in Bakersfield as well. Brian Levy was thoroughly impressed with Gross from the moment she was hired.
“She’s a grinder with amazing work ethic. That goes a long way,” Levy said, who coincidentally enough, also got his start as a video coordinator for the Jam. Levy served as an assistant General Manager with Bakersfield during his tenure with Gross there as well.
“She showed she was capable of taking on more and we gave her more and more responsibilities as the season went on,” Levy said. “It made my life easier.”
Gross moved on from Bakersfield to the Iowa Energy, serving as an assistant for Bob Donewald for the 2014–15 season prior to joining the Raptors 905 the following year. There have been no issues along the way for her professionally.
“I’ve been lucky that all the staff I work for are super accepting. They don’t even really make a difference of it. I’m just one of the staff I’m just an assistant. It’s a very welcoming type atmosphere,” Gross said. “It’s great here, and the players realize too if you’re there to help them get better it doesn’t matter.”
That would seem to be the case, as the 905 finished with a 39–11 regular season record (good enough for second best all-time in league history) en route to a championship in just their second season in existence.
“I was intrigued with Coach Stack so I interviewed for it, it was a new organization,” Gross said. “They treat their G League very well, it’s a fluid type situation.”
Overall the G League has represented nothing but a positive experience for Gross as she looks to continue her professional career heading into the 2017–18 season. She won’t be alone though as the Agua Caliente Clippers hired Natalie Nakase to their coaching staff in their inaugural season.
“I’m really close friends with her,” Gross said of Nakase. “Her and I were interns at summer league together five years ago so we got really close. She was in the video room with the Clippers. So I was just picking her brain any chance I could so we just got close during that internship.”
The San Antonio Spurs and the Sacramento Kings are the only teams who currently have a female on their coaching staff (Becky Hammon and Jenny Boucek respectively). While the ultimate goal for Gross is to find her way to the NBA, she is content at where she finds herself currently.
“I’m in no rush to do it. I’m completely enjoying the process,” Gross said. “ I love everything the G League has to offer and has given me in terms of getting your feet wet in everything. I would love to be on an NBA sideline as a coach at some point.”
Meghan McPeak
McPeak is entering her third season as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Raptors 905. McPeak was originally pegged as a color broadcaster having been a former player when she first joined the booth.
“For me, being a former player it was sort of understood, former players typically do color commentary because you understand the dynamics or why maybe Gregg Popovich may not call a timeout and play through it,” McPeak said.
But it wasn’t always about color commentary. McPeak first honed her craft at McMaster University for four years after graduating from college. It wasn’t until her colleague fell ill that she was put in the play-by-play chair and never looked back.
“Three games in I was like, screw color this is amazing, and I was having more fun doing play-by-play,” McPeak said. “Not that I wasn’t having fun before but you got to describe more on the play, not talk more but you got to tell a story of what’s happening on the court.
“I was having more fun being the storyteller as opposed to analyzing the story,” McPeak continued.
Is there anyone McPeak tries to model her play calling from?
“I’ve enjoyed listening to Kevin Harlan, Mike Breen, even Mike Tirico. I’m so close to Paul Jones, he was another person that I listened to a lot, Jerry Howard who is a very good friend of mine. Chuck Swirsky, he’s one of the best in the NBA,” McPeak said.
But it’s not about listening to those people and modeling your careers after them according to McPeak, but finding your own identity in the process.
“The one thing I’ve learned in this business is yes you can have mentors and look at what they do but you can’t duplicate what they do and make it your own.”
Before she found her way on the road to the six, McPeak spent the six -previous years in the broadcast booth, preparing for this moment. Nervous? Hardly.
“Honestly, no,” said McPeak on if she was nervous transitioning from the NBL to her current position. “When I made the transition for the inaugural season that technically overall would have been my sixth season doing play by play although it’s definitely a leap going from college to semi-pro is what I call the NBL Canada,”McPeak said.
These roles are merely rungs off a ladder as she’s climbing her way to the top with the ultimate goal of reaching the NBA.
“If you want to equate it to WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs, the NBA is the title at the top and ring number one was high school, the next ring is McMaster, the next ring is NBL, the next ring is the G League and the next level would be WNBA,” McPeak said. “I was more nervous in the lead up probably just because there was a hype around it so that was making me nervous in the sense of everyone put me on this pedestal. Once it was game day and I was in the mindset it was second nature.”
McPeak finds tremendous support for her career from the Raptors organization, giving her the confidence to succeed in her current role.
“It made everything easy and very calming not only because I had the backing from the 905 but also the backing of the NBA and the Raptors and Masai Ujiri, Dwayne Casey, Teresa Reich, Senior Director of BBall Operations (Raptors),” McPeak said. “They’re removing the gender aspect and are looking for knowledgeable, talented and skillful people. Who cares what their birth certificate says or what is or isn’t between their legs, are you good enough, are you talented are you skillful and can you fit our culture?”
Yet despite their support she does get some resistance from fans via social media, most recently with one particular person telling her to stick to the sidelines and stay out of the booth.
“He originally tweeted it to me, ‘you belong on the sideline cause that’s where women belong,” McPeak said, noting the person claimed to be a 905 season ticket holder. “It’s only been recently when I make comments sticking up for other people that people decide to come at me.”
“Luckily I haven’t had anything like crazy bad, or vile or horrible. Stick to the sidelines and that’s it.”
The Raptors are breaking the mold and finding themselves more progressive than any other G League franchise currently. As the team gears up for another season, this trio will continue to buck trends, break down barriers, and make strides for women everywhere looking to find their own opportunity it the basketball operations side of things.
From managing, to coaching, to broadcasting, they all found their way to the game of basketball, and the Raptors organization embraced them and let them flourish.
