Teresa Weatherspoon

Teresa Weatherspoon is an American professional basketball coach, former player and trailblazer who serves as assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Weatherspoon is the eighth woman ever hired for a full time position in the NBA. She played for the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Weatherspoon was one of the original players of the WNBA in 1997 when she joined the New York Liberty in the WNBA's inaugural season. She also won an Olympic Gold Medal in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea and a Bronze Medal in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. She began her coaching career and was quickly made the head basketball coach of the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters where she stayed for six seasons. Weatherspoon was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. In 2016, Weatherspoon was chosen to the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the league's best 20 players ever in celebration of the WNBA's twentieth anniversary. Weatherspoon is also an advocate for victims of domestic violence. In 2009 she was one of 100 celebrities to sign a petition to the Department of Justice to raise awareness about domestic violence, and currently, she speaks to continue to fight for the rights of victims of domestic abuse.