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BenFred:
From Fairground
Park to the NBA,
Ivey’s inspiring
basketball climb
continues
by Ben Frederickson
of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
T he boys once told her no.
congratulations, Niele!
Now she will coach and coach against the
best male basketball players in the world.
Niele Ivey wins.
The St. Louis sports hero has done it since
a little girl defied her brothers’ basketball
teasing.
“Too small,” they jeered years ago. “Too slow.”
They learned.
“I always looked up to playing my brothers,”
Ivey recently said by phone. “That’s where
my passion for the game originated.”
Look at where it’s led her.
16 SPIRIT MAGAZINE SPRING 2020
Photos courtesy of the University of Notre Dame.
school championship in 1995. In college, she helped
Ivey lifted her Cor Jesu team to a Missouri state high
Notre Dame win its first national championship under
Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw. That was in 2001.
She went on to play five seasons in the WNBA. Since
returning to her college alma mater to coach in
2007, Ivey became McGraw’s top assistant as Notre
Dame made seven Final Four appearances, six of
which turned into title games. One became another
championship victory, in 2018. Many believe Ivey will
be the future head coach at Notre Dame. And maybe
that happens.
But Ivey, 41, recently made history again when she
became the first woman on the coaching staff of the
NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. As their new assistant coach,
Ivey is just the ninth woman ever on an NBA coaching
staff. Her strong background in player development
and the youth movement on Memphis head coach
Taylor Jenkins’ team made Ivey a perfect fit. It also
helped that the Grizzlies selected Murray State point
guard Ja Morant with the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft.
Ivey knows a thing or two about that position.
The Post-Dispatch recently caught up with Ivey. The
following Q&A has been edited for space and clarity. If
you’re reading this, she hopes you make the trip to see
her on the Memphis sideline this season.
Right: Niele Ivey ’96 coaching the Notre Dame
Fighting Irish women’s basketball team.