The Cal 100: No. 55 -- Lindsay Gottlieb
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 55: Lindsay Gottlieb
Cal Sports Connection: Gottlieb was a Cal women’s basketball assistant coach for three years and the Golden Bears head coach for eight seasons.
Claim to Fame: Cal went to the NCAA tournament in seven of her eight seasons as head coach, including a Final Four berth in 2013, and she became the first woman to go directly from being a college head coach to becoming an NBA assistant coach.
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Being Cal women’s basketball head coach when the Bears reached the Final Four in 2013 may have earned Lindsay Gottlieb a berth on the fringe of The Cal 100, but it was her trailblazing move to become an NBA assistant coach with a prominent role that moved her into the top 60.
Gottlieb became a coach early, serving as a player and assistant coach as a senior on the Brown women’s basketball team.
She eventually became an assistant coach at Cal for three seasons (2005-06 through 2007-08) before having success as a head coach in three seasons at UC Santa Barbara.
Gottlieb became Cal’s women’s head coach in 2011, and the Bears earned an NCAA tournament berth in seven of her eight seasons at the helm. The pinnacle was the 2012-13 season when Cal went 32-4 and reached the Final Four for the only time in school history. The Bears tied Stanford for the Pac-10 regular-season title that year, the only time Cal has won a women’s basketball conference championship other than 1981 and 1982 when the conference consisted only of teams from Northern California.
Six of the players Gottlieb coached at Cal were drafted by the WNBA, including three in the first round.
The Cal women have not been to the NCAA tournament since Gottlieb left following the 2018-19 season.
She left despite having two years left on her Cal contract that reportedly would have paid her $975,000 in 2019-20 if she satisfied all the incentive clauses. But that contract also included clauses that she could leave if opportunities in the WNBA and NBA arose, indicating her interest in pro basketball.
And when the offer came from the Cleveland Cavaliers to be an assistant coach, she took it – although she asked the advice of Warriors coach Steve Kerr before accepting.
Lindsay Gottlieb on the Cleveland Cavaliers' Bench. Photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports
Gottlieb became the seventh woman to become an assistant coach in the NBA, and the first for the Cavaliers. More significantly, she was the first woman to jump directly from a head-coaching position in college to the NBA. The others were former WNBA players.
Gottlieb played an important role in advance scouting, player development and game-planning for the Cavs, and is one of just three females who have had prominent coaching roles on NBA teams, joining Becky Hammon with the Spurs and Nancy Lieberman with the Kings.
Gottlieb’s move was seen as an important step in the advancement of women coaches in pro basketball, especially since she was lauded for her two seasons of work with the Cavaliers.
Gottlieb returned to college coaching in 2021 when USC made an extraordinary offer, and in her second season as the Trojans head coach, USC reached the NCAA tournament. (USC split its two games with Cal this past season.)
The Cal 100: No. 56 – Jaylen Brown
Cover photo of Lindsay Gottlieb with Collin Sexton of the Cleveland Cavaliers by Ken Blaze, USA TODAY Sports
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