Before Thursday night’s Mavericks game against the Spurs, assistant coaches Jenny Boucek for Dallas and Becky Hammon of San Antonio were chatting at midcourt.
Perhaps they already knew that they were about to make history.
When Rick Carlisle’s lead assistant coach Stephen Silas came down ill and missed the day-after-Christmas mage, it opened up a seat next to the head coach.
So Carlisle did what all good managers do. He promoted from within.
No big deal for a regular-season game, right?
Except that on this occasion, it meant moving special assistant Jenny Boucek from behind the bench to a seat alongside Carlisle and assistant Jamahl Mosley.