Q: “How would you describe the Summer League experience to someone who’s not particularly familiar with it? What kind of atmosphere do you feel when you’re there?” Mery Andrade: “It’s a beautiful experience, a really intense one but beautiful, both for the players and the coaches. For the players who were drafted, it’s the first real test to prove their value in front of the coaching staff, for the undrafted guys or the players who spent the season in Europe, it’s a test to find a new contract, so there’s pressure to deliver, because if you do well, it’s gonna be easier to find a new contract, but if you don’t perform well, your stocks might drop. So it’s also stressful, and the presence of agents and executives makes it even more stressful for the players. Of course, it’s also a very busy time for coaches. We have so many events and practices during the day. We do team work with the roster, but we also do individual sections with the veterans of the team. I work for the Raptors, so we do individual shoot-around with Scottie Barnes, for example. But there are also clinics arranged by the coach’s association and events arranged by the league itself. I have also WNBA events to attend, since I’m a former WNBA player. So it’s definitely a very busy period for all the people involved”. Q: “As a coach, during an event like the Summer League, which are the aspects that you look the most in a player? Is there a specific trait or attitude that you’re looking for in a player during an event like this one? On which characteristics do you focus the most?” Mery Andrade: “Contrary to what many agents and players think, we are not looking for the new Steph Curry or LeBron James, partly because most NBA teams already have those types of stars. What we try to figure out by observing a player in a setting like Summer League is whether that player can play the right way. Is he able to play effectively in a system with his teammates? Can he also play well without the ball? Is he also able to do the dirty work, to be aggressive on defense, to play hard? For example, for us, it is super important to understand whether the player can put a lot of pressure on the ball defensively. A lot of guys coming out of college have to understand that at the higher level, there is a different way of playing. So many in their colleges were stars or otherwise among the best players on the team, whereas at the next level, they have to adjust to a different role. The NBA is a very physical league, so one of the first things we try to see in these guys is just their ability to handle this different physicality. Can they be aggressive on the ball? Do they know how to rebound aggressively? Can they play at a higher level of intensity? If we notice that they already have this motor, this predisposition to a certain kind of intensity, everything else comes later. Because if they already have this ability to handle the physicality and intensity of a league like the NBA, that’s already more than half the job. Of course, then you also look at attitude, for example how they handle pressure on the court, especially in the most delicate moments, and how they behave off the court because in a city like Las Vegas it’s extremely easy to get distracted by other aspects. These are also things that matter a lot. Talking as a guest speaker at some league events, I always say it: don’t give teams a reason not to pick you. Because NBA teams already have a very large pool of players from which to choose, so they often look for aspects that will exclude a player: an unprofessional attitude, a shallowness, a lack of interest. All of these are aspects that can get you out of the league very quickly”. Q: “You’re now working for the Toronto Raptors after spending a few years working for the New Orleans Pelicans. Can you share with us how the recruiting process with Toronto went? Who was the first person who reached out to you? How would you describe the whole process?” Mery Andrade: : “I worked for four years in New Orleans, mainly with the G League franchise, and before I even started with New Orleans I had taken a course organized specifically for former NBA and WNBA players that gives you the tools, not so much tactical but more technical, especially in terms of using softwares, to work in the coaching world. After four years in New Orleans, I felt I had achieved my goals there and was looking for a change. I had interviewed for head coach of the Milwaukee Heard, the G League team affiliated with the Milwaukee Bucks when I was still working for the Pelicans. Then I started sending my resume around a little bit to those teams that might be interested, and one of them was the Boston Celtics. I did the Summer League with the Celtics and one of the members of their front office told me that the Raptors were looking to change things internally and they were also looking for a woman coach. When I was about to finish Summer League with the Celtics I was contacted by Darko Rajakovic, the Raptors coach, who asked me if I would like to talk about a possible role with them. So a few days later I talked to Darko and the Raptors’ GM, Masai Ujiri. It all happened in a few days, and it was a proposal that intrigued me a lot because the Raptors were rebuilding and I was eager to learn everything from how to rebuild to how to get to a title. For my professional growth, I think Toronto was the best choice, although in Boston maybe I could have won the title (laughs, ed.). I am always very confident that what I deserve will come sooner or later”. Q: “You are one of the few women on a coaching staff in the NBA, in an environment normally dominated by men. From your perspective, where does the league stand in terms of opportunities for women? Do you think the situation has improved from the past? Do you think it’s only a matter of time before we get to a situation where a woman can become head coach of an NBA franchise?” Mery Andrade: : “As in all things I think it’s just a matter of time. One of the main characteristics of us women, one of our best qualities is our persistence in achieving what we want. We have to be patient and keep showing the good work we can do. Only through work can we achieve something that, in fact, would be rightfully ours. Because so many times I hear the criticism, “You only got this job because you’re a woman,” and of course, it’s a criticism that comes from a man in most cases. I, in some ways, can even come to understand such a criticism but I could easily counter it by saying that for years and years, many men got their jobs just because they were men and not because they were the best at their jobs. Now the doors for women are opening a little bit more but if they had opened earlier, there would have been a lot more women in this job, because there are a lot of extremely capable ones who for so many years simply did not have a chance in this world. I have been preparing for years and continuing to try to improve myself as a coach even if such an opportunity might arise because the only way for us is just to be super prepared so that we do an excellent job when the opportunity comes”. Q: “As a former WNBA player, how do you evaluate the evolution of the league in recent years? There’s definitely been more attention and more coverage from the media, but financially speaking it doesn’t look like the players are at a level that can be considered satisfying. Most of the WNBA players still go to play overseas, once the WNBA season is over, to make more money. What do you think it can be done to improve the situation?” Mery Andrade: : “The league has grown from the time I was playing. In my time in the WNBA, you often got paid exclusively in bonuses based on goals accomplished, there wasn’t even a real salary, so you were basically forced to go play in Europe once the WNBA season was over. The last CBA definitely improved the situation, especially in terms of rights for the players. The next big battle for the next CBA will be to get a greater percentage of the revenue that comes in from TV rights and merchandising sales. In the NBA, in fact, the division of those revenues now is in favor of the players, who get 51 percent compared to 49 percent for the owners, while in the WNBA the situation is still clearly in favor of the owners, who keep 70 percent of the revenue, leaving only 30 percent for the players. As you were saying, now there is more attention from the media but also from the fans, so many games are sold out, but players’ salaries are still at a low level, so this needs to be changed. This is not just an economic issue. If female players started earning more in the WNBA, they could also play more, because they wouldn’t have to play all year to earn money abroad. So it’s also about protecting the players’ health. Even I, during my career, at one point, chose to play only in Italy, because if I had continued to play in both the WNBA and Europe, my knee would not have held up and my career would have been shorter”.