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February 01, 2025

ASU women’s basketball coach inspires lawyers to be positive, adaptable

Arizona State University women’s basketball coach Natasha Adair has forged a legendary career as one of college basketball’s most loved coaches. A highly recruited high school player before a serious knee injury sent her life down a different path, Adair played ball at Pensacola (Florida) Junior College for two years followed by another two at the University of South Florida. She then embarked on a highly successful coaching career marked by her ability to turn losing programs around, bring successful programs greater success and form strong bonds with her players. 

Arizona State University women’s basketball coach Natasha Adair keynoted a program at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix.

Arizona State University women’s basketball coach Natasha Adair keynoted a program at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix.

American Bar Association phoeo

Adair was the keynote speaker at the 2025 Present & Powerful Speaker Series at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix. The series is an annual networking reception coordinated by the Women's Initiative Network of the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division and the Women Rainmakers of the ABA Law Practice Division. The yearly programs feature renowned presenters from outside the world of law to share their stories and hopefully empower and inspire women in the legal profession. This year is the program’s 10th anniversary. 

Adair talked about her almost 30-year journey as a basketball coach and how important teamwork is to her success as both a coach and in life. When she arrived at her first head coaching job at the College of Charleston, a struggling program, she told her players, “You have to commit.” She brought in a culture of positive change. 

After her playing career, Adair became an assistant coach at Georgetown in 1998, serving six years in that role. While there, she produced two draft picks and more than 10 international players, earning recognition as the nation’s best recruiter. At Wake Forest University she developed the best recruiting class in school history, coached two more draft picks and six additional international stars, contributing to the winningest staff in the program’s history.  

After 14 years as an assistant coach, Adair broke barriers as the first Black head coach in any sport at the College of Charleston and shattered 22 school records in her first year. She led the program to back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in history. Adair returned to Georgetown as head coach in 2014, leading the program to the third-best turnaround in Division 1 in just her second year. In 2017, she became the first Black women’s head basketball coach in the history of the University of Delaware. She ended up winning a Coach of the Year award, a regular season championship and a conference championship in her five years at the school. In 2022, she moved to Arizona State where she also became the first Black women’s basketball coach.  

As head coach at Georgetown, Adair inherited a more successful program and realized she needed to listen to the players and not adopt a “my way or the highway approach.” At Delaware, another program with past success, she kept players on task and encouraged them to “be you.” She stressed that we all need to stay “adaptable to the situation.” 

Adair also has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to service and leads numerous community efforts in the Phoenix area. She recounted the story of her 2020 Delaware team and their efforts to effectuate change.  

In May 2020, during the COVID pandemic, the trauma of George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota impacted the entire country. Adair set up a Zoom call with her players and asked, “How are you feeling?” They answered, “Hurt. Pain. Anger. Confusion.” Then Adair asked: “What do you need from me?” Direction, they said. 

The coach listened and strategized. “My players were scared,” she said. “They were looking to me for leadership, so I went and got help from my network.” Adair stressed the importance of the “need to stand up and say, ‘I need help.’” 

She went to athletic director Chrissi Rawak, who told her that the small size of the state of Delaware allows them to do things that other states can’t: They can make change. 

Team captain Lizzie Oleary developed the phrase, “Actions Over Words,” which became the team’s motto. Students met with legislators and police officers, the governor and attorney general. They learned the power of their voice and wrote letters to elected officials across the state, asking them to ban the use of excessive force and chokeholds by police, which was signed into law on June 25, 2020. 

Adair has not enjoyed as much on-court success at Arizona State as injuries have plagued the team’s efforts. “When life throws you a curveball, you blow the whistle,” she said. “You call timeout and reset.” 

She also discussed the need for preparation and the importance of “scouting yourself,” to closely look at your strengths and weaknesses and how you can improve. Adair stressed positivity and said she has her team “brag on teammates” every practice — always offering up a “good job” to keep morale up.  

ABA President Bill Bay told the assembly at the close of the program and that “the ABA has many entities and players, but one team with the mission of making the ABA the home for all lawyers.” 

Adair reminded lawyers that resilience is not just about bouncing back from adversity, it’s about the willingness to change and the strength to face whatever comes next.