Hawks add Brittni Donaldson, first female coach in franchise history

Fans cheer before Game 6 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs at State Farm Arena, Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Fans cheer before Game 6 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs at State Farm Arena, Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

The Hawks added former Raptors and Pistons assistant Brittni Donaldson to their coaching staff, according to people familiar with the situation. Donaldson becomes the first female coach in the history of the franchise.

The 30-year-old Donaldson, who played at Northern Iowa from 2011-15, is one of seven female assistant coaches in the NBA and her role with the Hawks will focus mostly on analytics.

She recently completed one season with the Pistons where she served as an assistant as well as the director of coaching analytics. With the Pistons, she worked with rookie guard Jaden Ivey, who was selected to the NBA’s All-Rookie Team last month.

Before the Pistons, the Sioux City, Iowa, native started working for the Raptors in 2017 as a data analyst and then joined Nick Nurse’s coaching staff in 2019.

Along with the Raptors and Pistons, she has had stops with Raptors 905, the Raptors G League affiliate, as well as the Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

Donaldson joins a Hawks staff that includes Igor Kokoskov, Mike Brey, Antonio Lang, Jeff Watkinson and Steven Klei.