The Hawks and Chelsea Lane, the team’s Executive Director of Athletic Performance and Sports Medicine, are parting ways. Lane was brought over to Atlanta after winning multiple championships with the Golden State Warriors as their Head of Performance Therapist, who had been lauded for her work by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The Athletic first reported Lane’s departure from Golden State but then followed the initial report up with shocking news. Golden State wasn’t willing to match the amount of money that Atlanta offered Lane. This came out in an episode of Nate Duncan’s Dunc’d On Podcast, featuring Ethan Strauss, who covers the team for The Athletic.
Travis Schlenk was the Warriors assistant general manager when Lane joined the team in 2015, and he thought so highly of her to press ownership to offer more money. During Golden State’s back-to-back championship run, Lane was critical in helping Curry recover from ankle and knee injuries, as well as Kevin Durant (knee), Andrew Iguodala (knee), and Thompson (ankle). Thompson’s father, Mychal, said she deserved a video tribute when she returns to Oakland in her inaugural season with the Hawks, noting Lane “worked a miracle on Klay’s ankle in the Finals.”
The Hawks dealt with their own bevy of injuries this year, with Cam Reddish, Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish, Kris Dunn, and Oneyka Okongwu missing significant time in last year’s regular season. But nobody in the business is better than Lane at what she does, so I would put no fault at all on her for the Hawks’ injury misfortunes. She’ll move on to focus on sports in New Zealand, but all of Atlanta owes her nothing but gratitude.
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