By Dorothy J. Gentry
Sports Editor
Add a WNBA champion to the growing group of new faces preparing to usher the Dallas Mavericks franchise into a new era.
Kristi Tolliver, a three-time WNBA All-Star and two-time champion, joins the Mavs as their newest assistant coach. The hiring was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Mavs have yet to make a formal announcement but Tolliver, 34, confirmed the hiring herself on her personal Twitter social media account.
“Thank you all for the love and support entering this new journey with the @dallasmavs. So thankful for this opportunity and can’t wait to get to work. #MAVS”
Tolliver currently plays for the Los Angeles Sparks. The WNBA and NBA do not play in the same seasons. She was drafted No. 3 overall in the 2009 WNBA draft by the Chicago Sky. She was traded a year later to the Sparks where she won a championship in 2016. She left the Sparks in 2017 to play for the Washington Mystics where she won a second championship in 2019. She returned to the Spark this year.
The WNBA star brings previous coaching experience to the Mavs. While in Washington she spent two seasons as an assistant with the NBA’s Washington Wizards. Mavs fans are in for a totally new leadership group as the franchise named Jason Kidd as its new head coach and Nico Harrison as its new general manager this summer, replacing Rick Carlisle and Donnie Nelson respectively.
