Lane back home after trailblazing NBA role
Basketball New Zealand believes it has nabbed a ‘‘game-changer’’ in Kiwi NBA trailblazer Chelsea Lane to head its high performance programme.
Lane, Australian-born, but now a proud Kiwi, was unveiled yesterday as the organisation’s new high performance head, succeeding the departed Leonard King. The former physio, who relocated to New Zealand in the early-2000s to be part of the Academy of Sport structure, has had prominent roles with the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks in the NBA where she worked with players of the ilk of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Trae Young.
She was part of two NBA championships during her three years at the Warriors (2015-18), and has the rings to show for it. She also spent a groundbreaking three years at the Hawks (2018-21) before deciding to move back to New Zealand with her husband to pursue opportunities in this part of the world.
Basketball NZ chief executive Dillon Boucher described the addition of Lane, who starts her role next month, as a ‘‘coup’’ for the organisation as it looks to cash in on the surge of popularity among youngsters and continue to develop as a nation that punches well above its weight on the international stage.
‘‘Lane is a game-changer for our high performance programme,’’ Boucher said.
Lane’s CV is certainly impressive, as has been her ability to carve new territory in a league of the NBA’s standing.
After working as a performance therapist with the Academy of Sport, and then morphing into a job working with national team athletes as part of High Performance Sport NZ, she moved to the US in 2015 to start in a performance therapy role with the Warriors.
She was soon promoted to Head of Performance at Golden State and oversaw championships in 2017 and ‘18, before being snapped up by the Hawks as Director of Performance (and eventually a team vice-president) to head a rebuild of their development programme.
‘‘I loved the Hawks and being in Atlanta, but I had been there through a lot of unrest in the US and when Covid began to disrupt the world . . . a few family things aligned and that decision to move home became possible, we found ourselves back here,’’ she said.
Lane said she learned a lot in multiple areas working with the elite performers and their championship mentality at the Warriors.
‘‘It was culturally a huge change for me. I was the only non-American in the Warriors leadership group and the only woman; in fact I became the first woman in the NBA in a role like this in its 75-year existence.
‘‘The learning curve became even steeper at the Hawks, but I had great support in a massive role.’’
She says when the role with Basketball NZ came up, ‘‘it felt like the stars were aligned ... I thought, ‘I can actually be useful here – I think I can help’’’.