[ti:Women's Influence Growing in US Men's Professional Basketball] [00:00.00]如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享... [00:00.04]Training is over for the day, but one Boston Celtics basketball team coach is still working. [00:10.88]Assistant coach Kara Lawson is on the team's court helping new player Carsen Edwards improve his game. [00:21.72]He gets the ball into the basket several times and then runs over to her. [00:27.79]"Thanks coach," Edwards says before exchanging a high-five with Lawson. [00:35.28]Welcome to the new look of the National Basketball Association, [00:40.71]or NBA - the men's professional basketball league in North America. [00:47.76]Women now are involved in most parts of the organization — from broadcasting, [00:54.25]officiating and coaching to high-level management and even team ownership. [01:02.04]Lawson is one of a record high 11 women serving as assistant coaches among the 30 NBA teams. [01:13.04]"It's not a fad," said former professional basketball player Nancy Lieberman. [01:19.51]"It's opportunities going to very accomplished women who have given their life to the game." [01:26.96]The change in the NBA is recent. [01:30.16]The 61-year-old Lieberman remembers a time when women were rarely seen in the NBA. [01:38.44]Lieberman herself has broken barriers as a player, as a coach in the WNBA, [01:44.88]as head coach in an NBA minor league and as an assistant in the NBA. [01:52.24]She says she quickly learned that building relationships was critical to easing gender barriers in the organization. [02:01.76]She found support from organization members, like former coach Don Nelson. [02:07.69]In 2009, he chose Lieberman to be head coach of the minor league Texas Legends team. [02:15.92]Now she serves as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings, along with two other women. [02:25.48]Players respect the women assistant coaches for their experience and knowledge of the game. [02:32.68]Kara Lawson was a basketball star at the University of Tennessee [02:37.25]and later won a WNBA championship with the Sacramento Monarchs. [02:44.15]She also won a gold medal with the U.S women's basketball team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. [02:53.50]She retired from play in 2015. [02:57.37]Earlier this year, she joined the Celtics as a coach. [03:02.52]Player Gordon Hayward said Lawson has made her presence felt. [03:07.50]"She's been good as far as just the experience she has as a basketball player," Hayward said. [03:14.80]"Having [someone] that well-versed in basketball, that experience is good." [03:21.08]One female assistant coach, Kristi Toliver, does double duty. [03:26.84]She plays for the WNBA's Washington Mystics. [03:32.02]She also serves as an assistant coach to the NBA's Washington Wizards team. [03:38.79]"The biggest thing I learned is to share your voice and what you've learned," Toliver said. [03:45.56]"Doing that has helped me communicate with my guys." [03:50.48]Richard Lapchick examines racial and gender hiring numbers [03:55.25]for the NBA and other professional sports organizations. [04:01.00]He praised the leadership of Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner. [04:06.96]Silver said the league needed to increase the number female coaches and referees. [04:14.08]Along with the record number of female assistants, [04:18.07]five female referees will be working NBA games this season. [04:23.68]Lapchick believes the NBA will soon have its first female head coach. [04:29.12]He said such a move would go a long way [04:32.12]toward putting even more women in position to make decisions in the sport. [04:38.64]"I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen before the next season," he said." [04:43.88]I'm Ashley Thompson.如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享...