Paige Bueckers calls out lack of Black women coaches in the WNBA: ‘It was built on a lot of Black women’

Bueckers’ postgame comments reignite a debate over coaching representation in a league where nearly 80% of players are Black or brown — but zero head coaches currently are.

Paige Bueckers used her postgame press conference Sunday to call attention to a stark reality in her league: for the first time since 2020, the WNBA has zero Black women in head coaching positions. The remarks, delivered unscripted, have since drawn both praise and significant backlash online.

Speaking after posting 22 points and 11 rebounds in a Dallas Wings win over Chicago, Bueckers pointed to her own upbringing when explaining why the issue mattered to her personally.

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“I think Black women specifically — I grew up with a lot of prominent Black women in my life that were very important to me and how I was raised, my stepmom, my AAU coach,” she said. “So I understand how amazing they are and how they should get the same equal opportunity as a white woman, as a white man. And it was built on a lot of Black women, this league was. So it’s definitely right for them to get the same equal opportunity as everybody else.”

According to CT Insider, this is the first season since 2020 that the WNBA has had no Black women in head coaching roles — a sharp decline from 2022, when three of the league’s 12 head coaches were Black women: Tanisha Wright, Vickie Johnson and Noelle Quinn.

Quinn, who was fired by the Seattle Storm after five seasons, went on to coach Bueckers in Unrivaled this past winter. She has said the disparity is no coincidence. “It’s not by accident. I believe it’s intentional,” Quinn said.

TheGrio previously covered Bueckers honoring Black women during her 2021 ESPYs acceptance speech, where she said she wanted to “shed a light on Black women” she felt were not getting the recognition they deserved. TheGrio has also reported on WNBA players describing why having a Black female coach mattered to their development, with South Carolina’s Dawn Staley repeatedly cited as a rare example of representation many young Black athletes never had.

The comments split public reaction sharply. Some praised Bueckers for using her platform, while others accused her of reciting a rehearsed talking point.

Bueckers’ comments add to an ongoing conversation about representation in a league where nearly 80% of players are people of color — yet, as of this season, none of its head coaches are Black women.