Meet The WNBA's First-Ever Indian-Origin Head Coach

When I was young, my parents were extremely persistent about me playing a sport. In this pursuit, I went to every sports class imaginable — tennis, badminton, skating, karate (a very brief stint), and table tennis. Until, in fifth grade, my P.E. teacher randomly roped me into playing basketball during one of our games periods. There was something about playing with my friends without the pressure of succeeding that just made me fall in love with the energy on that court. And from that day on, I was hooked.

Now of course, as any average 21 year old, I have lost touch with most of my hobbies. But occasionally when I do step onto that court, even though I am positively terrible and end up missing all my lay-ups, it still feels electric. Basketball was how I stopped being a shy, quiet kid. But growing up, at least for me, there weren’t too many female basketball players I could idealise like Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson in the mens game. The sport was always synonymous to these giants who had incredible life stories, but they were all almost always men and always foreign.

Which is why the appointment of Sonia Raman as the Seattle Storm’s head coach feels so monumental. Previously serving as the assistant coach of the New York Liberty, Raman will be the first person of Indian descent to serve as a head coach across the WNBA and NBA. Before joining the NBA, Raman was the head coach of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Women’s basketball team for over a decade.

Raman, who grew up in Massachusetts, has roots in India — her father is from Chennai and her mother from Nagpur. She joined Tufts University’s basketball team as a guard, but an injury in her junior year led her to develop her skills as a coach, and she went on to serve as co-captain in her senior year. She practiced law for a couple of years after graduation before stepping back onto the court as a collegiate-level coach for Wellesley College, which marked the beginning of her coaching career.

In the last couple of years, the WNBA has become more prominent in mainstream media because of modern legends like Caitlin Clark, Brittney Griner, and A’ja Wilson. And maybe that’s why Sonia Raman’s journey feels like more than just a milestone for representation. It's a powerful reminder that the game is expanding, and so are the stories being told through it, especially in a social climate, where people of colour are being called 'outsiders' or even 'aliens'. And for young girls like me, who once fell in love with the rhythm of the court without ever seeing someone who looked like us on it, Raman’s rise is proof that the sport — and the people and spaces around it — are finally changing.

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