Six years after taking Cal to its first Final Four, Lindsay Gottlieb stunned the basketball world in June of 2019 when she left to take an assistant coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Since that time she has run a full-team film session from owner Dan Gilbert’s couch, crafted a theoretically foolproof scouting report that held Rockets star James Harden to 55 points and helped demonstrate that the qualities that enable someone to coach at the highest level are not gender-specific. We cover some of the high points of Lindsay’s journey, from dreaming of playing shortstop for the Yankees to getting tossed out of a Hawaiian gym to receiving a surprise video message from Kobe Bryant before Cal’s Final Four run.
Lindsay explains to a pair of Cal alums (who wanted her to stay in Berkeley forever) why she became the first head coach of a Power Five women’s program to bolt for the NBA, pinpointing the moment she first viewed such a move as more than a pipe dream and its potential impact on future generations. She looks back on Cal’s breathtaking run to the 2013 Final Four (and the emotional assists the Golden Bears got from Kobe Bryant and President Obama), her tumultuous but fulfilling first year with the Cleveland Cavaliers and why a photo of Rockets star James Harden holding her young son left her feeling less than celebratory. We also learn what it’s like to be Mike Silver’s friend in a city that hates him, how Mike blew his chance to attend the same Ivy League school as Lindsay, and why Natalie got red-carded during a soccer tournament championship game on Mike’s birthday.