Mavs Hire Former WNBA Head Coach
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Jenny Boucek was hired Wednesday by the Dallas Mavericks to be an assistant to the team's basketball staff and special projects, the Mavericks announced in a news release on their website.
The team said, Boucek, 44, has built a solid basketball reputation and resume over the past two decades, including being an assistant coach with the Seattle Storm when they captured WNBA championships in 2004 and 2010. She also played briefly in the WNBA for the Cleveland Rockers in 1997 before playing for Keflavik in the Icelandic Urvalsdeild later that year.
The Nashville, Tennessee, product joins the Mavs after spending last season with the NBA's Sacramento Kings.
"Jenny is a veteran WNBA head coach and was a player development coach last season for the Sacramento Kings," coach Rick Carlisle said. "She will be involved in wide-ranging basketball assignments."
Boucek was named the Foreign Player of the Year after helping Keflavik capture the Icelandic Basketball Cup and the Icelandic championship in her lone season with the club during the 1997-98 campaign. She then returned to the Rockets in 1998, but retired from playing basketball that year because of a career-ending back injury.
An alumni of the University of Virginia – the same place where Carlisle played his college basketball – Boucek was the head coach of the Sacramento Monarchs from 2007-09. She also has worked as an assistant coach in the WNBA with the Washington Mystics (1999), Miami Sol (2000-02) and Seattle Storm (2003-05, 2010-14).
In addition, Boucek posted a 36-58 record as the head coach of the Storm from 2015-17. She also guided the Monarchs to a 40-41 record in her two-plus seasons as that team's head coach.
As a college player, Boucek was a guard for Virginia from 1992-96 and a two-time GTE Academic All-American.
"I consider her one of the brightest minds in our game," Carlisle said, "and welcome her to Dallas."