Three-time WNBA champion Swin Cash has achieved another feat.
Cash, who retired from the league in 2016, was the second draft pick overall in the WNBA 2002 draft and was picked up by the Detroit Shock. During her career, she played for other teams such as Seattle Storm, Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream, and New York Liberty over 15 years, and joined the U.S. Women’s National Team to win two Olympic gold medals (2004, 2012). After her basketball career, Cash went on to secure a leadership position in 2017 as the Liberty’s director of franchise development. In June 2019, New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin announced that she would be hired as the team’s vice president of basketball operations and team development by the New Orleans Pelicans, Yahoo Sports reports.
“I am so excited to join the New Orleans Pelicans as Vice President of Basketball Operations/Team Development,” Cash said at the time, according to a news release. “I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Mrs. [Gayle] Benson (team owner), David Griffin and the Pelicans organization for the opportunity to serve in a leadership role in the front office. I will use my experience as a professional athlete in the WNBA, Vice President of the WNBPA, businesswoman and philanthropist, along with the knowledge I’ve gained as a front office executive, to cultivate the organization’s basketball culture on the court and in the community.”
Six years since the appointment, Cash has been promoted to senior vice president of basketball operations, and she now becomes “one of the highest-ranking women in an NBA front office,” according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
Charania’s Instagram post read: “Sources: The New Orleans Pelicans are promoting executive Swin Cash – a former WNBA star and Naismith Hall of Famer – to Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, making her one of the highest-ranking women in an NBA front office.”
In an added comment, he shared: “The three-time WNBA champion has been a respected and rising exec in New Orleans since starting her role in 2019.”
