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By Koby Braunstein
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – Madeline Sulka is relentless in her pursuit to become the NBA’s first female head coach — a goal she first expressed in her Concordia University Irvine basketball bio as a player in 2017.
“All basketball players can relate that you don’t always know exactly what’s next when you are done playing,” Sulka said. “You love the game for so long, and it’s all you know. (Basketball) is engraved into who you are as a person.
“Coaching was never necessarily on my mind, (but) I was always a natural leader. I liked helping others and being that strong voice on the court that your teammates trust (and) that your coaches trust.”
Sulka returned to the Valley fresh out of college to work as a graduate assistant under former longtime ASU women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne. It didn’t take long for onlookers to notice her sharp eye cultivating talent on the floor.
Sulka was the head video coordinator for the Sun Devils from 2018 to 2021 – a role that isn’t flashy by any stretch of the imagination. However, the position is important to fueling a team’s success.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra opened the floodgates to a pathway that has now seen several former video coordinators become NBA head coaches. The three-time NBA champion coach started with the Heat as a video coordinator in 1995, putting together scouting reports on VHS tapes. At 38, Spoelstra was named the head coach of the organization he began working for 13 years earlier.
The teams that won NBA titles in 2020 and 2021, the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, had coaches who started their careers in the film room as well. Frank Vogel was brought on by the Boston Celtics in 2001 as their head video coordinator, while Suns coach Mike Budenholzer joined the San Antonio Spurs video room as an assistant ahead of the 1994-95 season.
Video coordinators are responsible for compiling film of all opponents, analyzing their own team’s film, creating scouting reports and leading film sessions. Sulka embraced the rigors of the role with a willingness to do whatever it took to rise through the coaching ranks, following a trajectory shaped by Spoelstra, Budenholzer and Vogel.
“Anything that needed to get done for the coaching staff, I made sure got done,” Sulka said. “Being a basketball coach is a very demanding and challenging position where the work is never done and there is always something to do. When you’re in these lower positions and climbing up the totem pole, the easier you can make your coaches’ jobs, the more valuable you are.”
Washington Wizards assistant Brian Randle launched his coaching career as an assistant video coordinator in 2018 with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The former University of Illinois forward said coaching was never what he set out to do after a decade playing professionally overseas, but it was “more like a calling.”
Randle is on his fourth stop along his coaching journey – the Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, Detroit Pistons and Wizards – and recalls the amount of work required inside the video room.
“A lot of long days,” Randle said. “You have different responsibilities from the previous night’s game, like looking at crunch time situations and getting those (clips) uploaded. Anything that the assistants might need, you try to be on top of it and ready to execute those things. The intensity of the job in Minnesota really paid dividends.”
Typing away in a secluded cubicle while hunched over a computer isn’t everyone’s version of coaching paradise. It certainly wasn’t Sulka’s, but she fought every day to prove that she belonged on the bench with the rest of the coaching staff.
Turner Thorne, who has known Sulka since she attended her camps as a kid, spoke highly about her former assistant’s infectious energy and disciplined work ethic in the film room.
“Maddie is a stud,” Turner Thorne said. “She lights up a room when she walks in it. She’s very personable, and that’s what separates her because there are a lot of people that can get in the film room and cut the film. But Maddie always represented our program really well and carried a warm and bubbly personality.
“Coaching is a lifestyle. It’s a lot of work every day, but Maddie definitely has no problem putting in the hours.”
While working for the Sun Devils women’s basketball program, Sulka pursued two master’s degrees in sports psychology and coaching studies at ASU. She graduated on May 3, 2021, and by May 5, former Phoenix Mercury coach Sandy Brondello hired her as the team’s lead video coordinator.
Sulka didn’t have the typical clock-in, clock-out hourly commitment. She embodied the commonly used expression ‘first one in, last one out’ to provide Brondello with as many resources as possible to boost the Mercury’s chances of winning. They came close to a title during her first season, falling in four games to the Chicago Sky in the 2021 WNBA Finals.
“Even though you’re at the bottom of the coaching world, you’re probably one of the most important pieces,” Sulka said. “You’re making sure the ship runs. You’re making sure that the coaches have everything they need at all times. You’re there at 6 a.m. and gone at 8 p.m.
“I was able to really grow under Sandy Brondello, and she took me under her wing. I was assisting in scouting reports that year, running player workouts and creating player development plans. When coaches allow you to expand your skill set, you find joy in your work.”
Sulka, 29, was born two years before the WNBA’s debut and, quite literally, witnessed the Mercury’s evolution as one of the league’s eight founding members in 1997.
Her dad, Seth Sulka, served as the Mercury’s vice president of operations from the team’s inception in 1996 until stepping down in 2006. He was appointed general manager in 2001, a role he also maintained until 2006.
Madeline recalled many fond memories from following her dad around at work.
“I basically lived at the arena with him as a little kid,” Sulka said. “I remember the first time I met Steve Nash, and I was 4 or 5 years old running around and eating a chocolate bar. He was interviewing on TV, (and) I ran right up to him. These memories are surreal and amazing.”
Following the 2021 WNBA finals, Suns general manager James Jones contacted Sulka to offer her a front office position in analytics quality control. Sulka pounced on the opportunity with zero hesitation despite never working in analytics before.
“I caught on pretty quickly,” Sulka said. “My main responsibility was tracking our team’s defense. After every game, I would flag each defensive clip (and) summarize when we did or did not execute our defensive principles and what those possessions led to.
“Additionally, I charted our offensive efficiency and put numbers together for coaches when they were making their scouting reports on opposing teams. The numbers I pulled for the coaches helped them determine how to guard specific players and what pick-and-roll schemes were most effective.”
Every morning, Sulka walked into the Suns’ offices at 6 a.m. before anyone else. Her commitment to excellence caught the attention of former Suns coach Monty Williams, who invited her to join the coaching staff as an assistant video coordinator the following season.
It was another full-circle moment, and her promotion made history.
“I was the first woman in Suns history to be on the coaching staff,” Sulka said. “The coaches liked my work enough to let me be on court and develop the players. I had a very good on-court presence with the team and had a great experience.”
Randle coached alongside Sulka on the Suns for multiple seasons, including Phoenix’s 2021 championship run before losing to the Bucks. He was impressed by her wealth of knowledge, focus and ability to command a room.
“I quickly understood how sharp she was,” Randle said. “She’s very much no-nonsense, and she’s got an intensity about her that gives her a voice. She makes an impact in a different way that doesn’t always come through in coaches.”
Ahead of the 2023-2024 season, Sulka was hired by the College Park Skyhawks, the NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, as the first female assistant coach in franchise history. It was an incredible career jump after only one year as an assistant video coordinator in the NBA.
Sulka described the freedoms her role entailed this past season.
“I’m showing the team film, taking the players through plays on the court, running drills in practice, and (working) with my player development guys,” Sulka said. “I got to really establish my identity as a coach. It was a great year.”
Sulka anticipated a return to the Skyhawks for the 2024-2025 season, until the franchise hired a new head coach and new general manager, and those plans changed. But her longtime goal of leading an NBA franchise remains the same.
“It’s definitely a transitional period that I’m in currently,” Sulka said. “Since I’ve gotten into the (NBA), I’ve always had a job, and I haven’t had downtime. It will be interesting to not have a position within the league this season, something I didn’t expect.
“My ultimate goal is to be a head coach in the NBA. I would love that. But in the meantime, it’s important for me to stay involved in the game and stay in tune.”
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