SEATTLE (AP) — Sonia Raman's coaching career has its roots in an unfortunate accident that sidelined her as a young player.
The new Seattle Storm coach was a junior guard for Division III Tufts in the mid-90s when she was hit by a car as she crossed the street.
She broke the tibia and fibula in her left leg, an injury that can still cause mild flareups 30 years later on rainy or humid days.
“My first reaction was, ‘Scary,' and, ‘Am I okay?’” Raman said recently as she prepared for her first season at the helm of the Storm. “And, it was painful. And, I remember my second reaction being, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to be able to play basketball.'”
She missed the second half of her junior season and the first half of her senior season. As Raman was rehabbing to get back into game shape, she became interested in finding other ways to help her team.
“I really think that was where the coaching element started to take shape,” Raman said. “... It made me see the game from a different perspective, from the sideline, because I would stand right next to my assistant coach, or right behind my head coach."
It became commonplace for Raman to corner head coach Janice Savitz and the rest of the staff in their offices. Raman begged them for videotapes so she could watch more games in her free time.
Her goal wasn't to become a coach. She left Tufts with an international relations degree in 1996 and then received a law degree from Boston College Law School in 2001.
Yet when Raman graduated from Tufts, she asked Savitz if she could stay on as an assistant. During a two-year stretch before she began law school, she helped out her alma mater, and worked for AmeriCorps and then as a solo practitioner for a paralegal during the day.
“Burning it at both ends for sure,” Raman said with a chuckle. “But when you’re young, you don’t think about those kinds of things. You just pour in, and you show up and you just keep working. And, it didn’t feel like work because it’s just so fun to do."
A new path
Raman’s coaching career easily could have come to an end after law school. She took a job with the Employment Benefit Security Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor.
Simultaneously, she accepted an offer to help out for one season at Wellesley College, where head coach Kathy Hagerstrom was going on parental leave. Raman ended up spending six seasons there.
Hagerstrom frequently encouraged Raman to consider a head coaching role, which she ultimately did when she accepted a job at MIT in 2008.
Julie Soriero, MIT’s athletic director at the time, was initially skeptical of Raman before interviewing her, and wondered if she viewed the job as an entryway into college athletics administration.
"I was very curious why someone would leave a corporate law opportunity, the job she had, a corporate law job, and come to a Division III coaching opportunity,” Soriero said. "So, I was really looking forward to meeting her. And, when she came in for her interview, she did not disappoint.”
Nor did she disappoint on the sideline. Raman had a firm understanding of the kind of athletes she needed to recruit, and under her watch, the Engineers enjoyed unprecedented success.
MIT, a school that has historically struggled to win, went 91-45 across Raman’s final five seasons as she became the winningest coach in school history.
“She just did a great job. And, that didn’t happen overnight,” Soriero said. “It really happened with a lot of patience on her part, a lot of learning and growing on her part, and a lot of dedication on her part. And step-by-step, she built it to a level to where we were competing for our conference championships year-in and year-out.”
The pros come calling
Following 11 seasons at MIT, Raman heard from the Rich Cho, vice president of basketball strategy for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. Cho was curious if Raman had any graduating players who would be good fits in either an analytics or coding role in Memphis' front office.
Raman told Cho there weren't any who fit the bill that year, but she would keep in touch. After Raman's 12th season at MIT, Cho reached out again - this time asking for her services.
Despite some initial skepticism, Raman made the jump in 2020 to the Grizzlies as an assistant coach.
“It was a huge risk,” Raman said. “It was probably the biggest personal risk I had taken in my life. I wasn’t a huge risk-taker before that.”
Raman trusted her gut, and became the first person of Indian descent to coach in the NBA, as well as the 14th woman to be named as an NBA coach.
Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic was an assistant alongside Raman from 2020-23 and was impressed by her ability to get buy-in from the team.
“What players want is somebody who cares about them and has extensive knowledge,” Rajakovic said. “And Sonia checks all of those boxes. From Day 1, never had an issue with players. Players loved her."
Raman takes charge in Seattle
Such also seems to be the case in Seattle already.
Raman, an assistant last season with the New York Liberty, has won over Storm players like Dominique Malonga and Lexie Brown with offseason visits; and rookie Flau’jae Johnson with her calm demeanor.
“Coach, she’s cool. She’s like a 180 from Kim Mulkey, right?” said Johnson, who played for Mulkey at LSU.
Raman said she believes she's always going to be prepared for any role she takes.
“I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for this moment,” she said. "Obviously, the 20 years I’ve coached in college, and the five years in the pros, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my time coaching. And, I think that you can learn a lot from that, and I’ve had some successes as well… . I do feel really ready for this opportunity and this season.”
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