Indiana Pacers Assistant Coach Jenny Boucek Likes to Keep Her Personal Life Private

The Indiana Pacers completed a remarkable, unprecedented comeback to take down the New York Knicks in overtime of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. As basketball fans tuned into the game, many wanted to know more about Jenny Boucek, the female coach who is on the bench and seems to be responsible for some amount of in-game coaching as well.

Female coaches in the NBA are not unprecedented, but they're still rare enough that they're intriguing to fans. Here's what we know about Jenny, and specifically about whether she's married.

Jenny does not appear to be married. She has kept much of her personal life private, but there are no indications to suggest that she has a spouse. Jenny certainly doesn't rely on a partner for either money or regular support, and seems to be almost fiercely independent. Instead of marriage, it seems like Jenny is focused both on her career and on other aspects of her personal life, including raising a child.

Jenny has one child, Rylie, who was born via artificial insemination just 12 days after Jenny accepted a job as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks. Rick Carlisle, Jenny's head coach both in Dallas and in Indiana, and Dallas owner Mark Cuban created a non-traveling coaching role specifically for Jenny so that she could continue to spend time with her daughter and wouldn't have to travel with the team while she had a newborn.

“I knew there was a scenario where this would cost me my dream of coaching in the NBA,” Jenny said of having a child back in 2018. She also said that coaching and raising a child have a few things in common, including repeating the same lessons and teachings over and over again.

“You’re just doing that on steroids when you have your own kid,” she said. Thankfully, it seems like Jenny is pretty good at both jobs.

Although she was originally hired by the Mavericks, Rick Carlisle brought Jenny with her when he moved from Dallas to Indiana, and it's clear that he did so for good reason. Jenny's official title within the Pacers organization is "shooting coach," and she takes that role to heart, studying each player's mechanics and helping them improve their form. All those three-point shots the team makes? That's at least in part thanks to her coaching.

Before becoming an assistant coach in the NBA, Jenny had a brief playing career in the WNBA and then became a coach in the league. Female coaches are still quite rare in the NBA, and the league has yet to hire a female head coach across any of its 30 teams. Jenny's presence is a reminder, though, that female coaches have plenty of insight that translates to the NBA, and Jenny might be well-positioned to eventually take on a head coaching role if one becomes available.