How Iowa's Brittni Donaldson became the NBA's youngest assistant coach
Brittni Donaldson feels right at home on the Toronto Raptors' bench, even though it's 1,000 miles from her native Sioux City.
And when the defending NBA champions tip-off in October, Donaldson, their newest assistant coach, will be sitting next to two other Iowans — Toronto head coach Nick Nurse and fellow assistant Nate Bjorkgren.
"I'm not even sure there are any other Iowans in Toronto," Donaldson said in a phone interview from Scotiabank Arena, the team's home venue. "They might all be in this building."
Nurse, who's from Carroll, and Bjorkgren, of Storm Lake, helped lead the Raptors to the 2019 NBA title in their first season with the franchise. Donaldson's promotion from data analyst in the team's front office to assistant coach was announced Sept. 9.
The 26-year-old Donaldson is the youngest assistant coach in the NBA. She's the 10th current female coach in the NBA, and fifth hired this summer.
Like Nurse, her journey to basketball's highest level began in her home state. Her father, Jeff Donaldson, played on powerhouse basketball teams in the early 1980s at Sioux City North — the same high school she helped lead to a Class 4A state championship in 2009.
Jeff Donaldson spent time at Briar Cliff College and was later inducted in the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame. Brittni Donaldson said she developed her love of basketball — particularly the NBA — from her father, a lifelong Boston Celtics fan.
When reached for comment, Jeff Donaldson called which jersey he'll be wearing that day a "game-day decision." Though he never imagined her reaching this level in the NBA, he wouldn't rule out an eventual head coaching job.
"With her, I'm never gonna say never," he said. "The Raptors have given her an opportunity to see the organization from many different angles. She's very confident and does her research and very prepared and we'll see where she ends up."
Though he's accustomed to rooting for the Raptors since his daughter began working for the organization, Donaldson joked that it's unclear which jersey her father will be wearing when Toronto hosts Boston on Christmas Day.
Donaldson's collegiate playing days were at Northern Iowa, the same alma mater of her eventual boss, Nick Nurse. Despite the similar backgrounds, the two never actually met until she joined the Raptors organization.
A knee injury kept Donaldson from pursuing her dream of competing in the WNBA, so she decided to put her actuarial degree to use after college and looked for any kind of sports-related job she could find.
Donaldson landed at Chicago-based STATS LLC, where she analyzed NBA data. She was later brought into Toronto's front office to work under Masai Ujiri, the franchise's general manager.
"Losing someone so smart is tough," Ujiri told ESPN about Donaldson's shift from the front office to the bench. "But she has coaching in her DNA."
Nurse has also made clear, according to ESPN, that Donaldson may bring analytic expertise to the bench, but she will be treated like any other assistant coach and expected to contribute in traditional areas like scouting, debating rotations and player development.
"I don't feel like I have something to prove," Donaldson told the Register. "I have great support here and everybody's bought into the work I've put in. Our leadership here is really progressive and forward-thinking and open-minded. They don't see an exact formula to get to A to B. They just see someone who's capable and put them there."
Aaron Calvin covers trending news for the Register. Reach him at acalvin@registermedia.com, 515-556-9097 or on Twitter at @aaronpcalvin.
