After the firing of Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn in 2025, no Black woman remained in the WNBA's head coaching ranks despite five head coach vacancies heading into the 2026 WNBA season.
The league has experienced record growth and expansion, but representation in leadership has moved in the opposite direction. In 2022, seven of the league's 12 head coaches were Black, including three women. By 2023, that number dropped to only three Black women head coaches. This season, there are two Black head coaches currently in the WNBA, but neither is a woman.
"(Black women) should get the same equal opportunity as a white woman, as a white man to be an important piece of this league," Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers said on Sunday after a win over the Chicago Sky. "(The league) was built on a lot of black women... So it's definitely right for them to get the same equal opportunity as everybody else."
"I grew up with a lot of prominent Black women in my life that were very important to me... my stepmom, my AAU coach," Bueckers added. "So I understand how amazing they are."
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