Detroit — When Nicolet Lewis joined the Pistons as the vice president of human resources in 2019, she was the only woman on the executive team.
That situation isn’t an anomaly. Many sports teams have high percentages of men represented in the highest positions in the front office, as well as on the business side of the organization. The tide has been changing in recent years across sports leagues, with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts helping more women get a seat at the table.
The Pistons have become one of the exemplary organizations in the NBA in terms of female representation, with several women taking on key leadership roles. In the past three years, more women have joined Lewis on the Pistons’ executive team, including Laura Ferich as chief financial officer, Alicia Jeffreys as senior vice president of marketing and Erika Swilley as vice president of community and social responsibility.
“To see the growth that we’ve had these past three seasons, it tells me I’m at the right place. I’m at the right place at the right time and I’m able to make an impact,” said Lewis, who has been promoted to senior vice president. “The change that all these dynamic women have been able to make, where they have a unique perspective and a unique voice, has changed all the work that we’ve done.
“I think that’s the piece and element to inclusivity that we miss when we don’t have those voices at the table.”
The NBA has been one of the most progressive sports leagues in America. According to league data, 42% of the professional positions in the league office and its teams are held by women, and 83 women were in roles as vice presidents or higher during the 2020-21 season.
More opportunities are opening, and as those roles are being filled, it’s making a bigger impact seeing women in prominent positions. Sometimes just getting a chance is the springboard to bigger opportunities.
Jeffreys was a two-sport athlete in high school, but when it became apparent that she had reached her peak as a player, she wanted to stay involved and sought out the best way to do that. After grad school, she started working for the Pistons, but her big chance came when she was a grassroots marketing manager with the Detroit Fury, an arena football league under the Palace Sports & Entertainment umbrella.
She jumped at the chance.
“I think (taking advantage of opportunities) is super important, but I think the way you do that is you cut out any excuse someone might have for why they won’t give you the opportunity,” Jeffreys said. “I had all these internships, so when I graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sports management, I had four years of experience working in sports because I wanted to eliminate any excuse they would have as a woman heading into a male-dominated sports industry.
“(I could say) I’m actually an expert in marketing, so I can market arena football — which I’ve never played — and that was a difference. I just think for women, sometimes you have to eliminate the excuses that someone might put in front of you for getting into sports.”
Ferich said she is one of three female CFOs — along with Toronto and Cleveland — out of the NBA’s 30 teams. Women are more represented in human resources and community and social responsibility than other departments around the league, but the Pistons are making a mark with their cadre of female executives.
“Representation definitely matters, even for me. I’m a vice president, but even going to the next level and seeing our CFO and our senior VP of HR be women, it’s almost comforting having them in the room and (knowing) you’re not the only one,” Swilley said. “I learn and grow from them on a daily basis.”
Getting the ‘W’
One of the key catalysts to getting more women involved in executive positions was the creation of the WNBA, which was founded in 1996. The league took advantage of the lift from the women’s U.S. Olympic basketball team’s success at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and it had the full backing of the NBA and then-commissioner David Stern.
“David Stern definitely took the WNBA under his wing to say, ‘This is the right thing to do.’ For most organizations, when the WNBA first started, it wasn’t to draw revenue or profit — it was literally for exposure,” Jeffreys said. “I would 100% credit the creation of the WNBA to at least putting the opportunity for women to be executives on a professional scale to the forefront because it showed and proved that we could run organizations.
“We could run business operations for a team and it 100% translated, because you’re literally running it just like an NBA season. You have regular season, you have playoffs, you have opening nights, you have All-Star breaks, and there is no difference.”
The progression has been gradual in both the NBA and WNBA, with better representation of women in various roles. There are three women who have controlling ownership in an NBA team, three others who have a significant ownership stake, and 10 who have a minority ownership stake.
Among the executive ranks, the NBA has six women who serve as president, COO or CEO and 11 women who hold ownership positions in the WNBA. The Pacers’ Kelly Krauskopf is the NBA’s first female assistant GM, Becky Hammon of the Spurs is the first assistant coach and Michele Roberts, the executive director of the NBA players association, was the first woman to head a pro sports union in North America.
A strong push
There are so many roads to success, but each of the women said that they had a strong nudge or encouragement from a family member or mentor that helped fuel her success. Beyond the opportunity, having a strong support system and network within the corporate structure was important.
“I come from a family of women that were in the workforce,” Ferich said. “My grandmother worked, and my mom was a teacher, and the one thing that she said from when I was young, was, ‘You’re going to get your MBA. I started and I never finished, so I don’t really care what you say, but you’re getting it.’
“So that kind of always stuck in my head as I was growing up. I always wanted to be in business. I would balance my mom’s checkbook when I was little, which is little bit dorky.”
Ferich said she followed the strong lead blazed by her sister in attending Michigan State, and with other women in the finance field. Cynthia Devine, Toronto’s CFO, and Mary Ann Sigler, the CFO of Platinum Equity, which owns the Pistons, have been impactful in motivating Ferich.
“(Sigler) has been awesome in helping provide guidance for me since I’ve taken over,” Ferich said. “I’ve known about her being in that role for a long time and I aspired to someday have a CFO title. If you asked me 10 years ago, I would say probably it’s not going to happen.”
Swilley said having her mother and other strong women around her has been a driving force for her success.
“I was always raised and taught that you’re not going to let you being a woman hold you back, and you’re just as capable and you deserve to be in these rooms,” Swilley said. “I always tell people that being a woman — and being a minority woman — that is my superpower. That is what I bring to the table.
“When I’m in a room with predominantly white males, I bring a perspective that they can’t, and knowing that and being able to leverage that has definitely helped in my career.”
‘Four superstars’
For the Pistons and team owner Tom Gores, having a diverse staff that represents the Detroit community has been a priority and they’ve done well in exemplifying that in the makeup of their staff.
“We’re really proud of the women executives that we have. They’re incredibly valuable to this organization and they’re great representatives of this organization in the community,” Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem said. “They’re future leaders — not only in the sports business, but in our business, civic and philanthropic community in Detroit and wherever they may go as their careers continue to flourish.
“They’re four superstars of our organization. They’re shining lights to our community that women can be in leadership roles with pro sports teams and have so much that they can contribute, and they’re doing it in a very impactful way.”
Time has helped open more doors for women within the Pistons organization, and looking around the room among the executive team is different than it was even a few years ago. There’s still more work to do across the league, but every step is part of the progression.
“It makes me honestly very humble to see where this organization is going and gets me excited every single day to come to work,” Lewis said.
Rod.Beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard