Few great athletes are defined by one moment, one game, as Allison Feaster is. When 16th-seeded University of Maryland, Baltimore County shocked top-seeded Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Feaster received her share of calls, texts, and Google searches.
While it was the first time a top-seeded men’s team had lost to a No. 16 seed, it really wasn’t the first time in NCAA basketball history. Twenty-one years ago, a ponytailed Feaster led Harvard into a first-round women’s tournament matchup with top-seeded Stanford. On the Cardinal’s home floor, Feaster catapulted herself into legendary women’s basketball status, scoring 35 points with 13 rebounds in the Crimson’s 71-67 victory.
That was the the first time a No. 16 beat a No. 1.
Feaster went on to enjoy an 18-year professional career in the WNBA and overseas. That made her unavailable to return to Boston to receive her deserved kudos until she received a call from Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge a few months ago.
The organization, hardly the model of front-office diversity in recent years, created a position entitled director of player development and sought out Feaster, who spent a year in the NBA’s Basketball Operations Associate Program and then accepted a skeleton developmental role for five teams, including the Celtics.
During that time, she formed a bond with Ainge, coach Brad Stevens, and the Celtics’ front office. She met with the group again at the Las Vegas Summer League, when the job offer was made.
“If there was ever an opportunity to take advantage of, that was one of them,” she said Wednesday afternoon after watching the Celtics’ second training camp practice session. “It wasn’t an end goal but always a possibility to work for a team. I just want to be a good role model for all the young women and girls who are aspiring to be where I am.”
It was a chance to return to her second home, an opportunity to work for an NBA team, to showcase what she has learned over her well-traveled career. And it was an opportunity that may not have presented itself a few years ago, but finally, the NBA is opening its front-office doors to women.
Feaster is the second woman the Celtics have hired in the past three months; they added WNBA veteran and respected commentator Kara Lawson as an assistant coach in June.
These hires are becoming commonplace, as they should be. Women such as Feaster and Lawson are basketball experts and have familiarized themselves with the men’s style of play, so their gender shouldn’t be an issue. Feaster is basketball royalty in the Boston area, a program-changing player who helped popularize women’s basketball in the Ivy League for a generation.
“That was, in my opinion and a lot of other folks’ estimation, one of the greatest moments in NCAA history,” Feaster said of the upset of Stanford. “And it definitely was a major check on my personal timeline. I got drafted [in the WNBA] because we played on television. I was largely unknown at that point. It was a very special moment.”
In that one moment in that one game, Feaster became one of the faces of the college basketball upset, the face of the underdog. She was David vs. Goliath. At age 43, she is still constantly reminded of that accomplishment as a 22-year-old. She has no issue with being part of history, especially since that helped popularize the women’s game and women’s tournament.
“It was the culmination of the steps we had taken my entire four years at Harvard,” she said. “It was us buying into a system. It was us believing team above self and it was a perfect realization of our coach’s strategy. That’s an easy walk to walk when you do it day in and day out.”
Feaster earned her MBA while playing in Spain but returned home in 2016 with little idea of a post-playing career path. The NBA associate program introduced Feaster to the possibility of working in the league full time, including front-office and developmental roles. Since the San Antonio Spurs hired former WNBA player Becky Hammon in 2014 as an assistant coach, there has been a steady stream of female hires in front offices and coaching staffs. Commissioner Adam Silver emphasized the importance of NBA teams to diversify.
“I’m very conscious of what’s around me and it’s a visual fact that there are not a lot of faces that look like mine, but I think that’s the beauty of this opportunity,” Feaster said. “It’s the beauty of what I’ve tried to hold dear my entire amateur and professional career, is being a role model and working hard and being prepared for opportunities when they become available.
“I applaud Adam Silver and the leadership at the NBA and I applaud Danny Ainge and the leadership here at the Celtics and around the league for recognizing that there’s a wealth of knowledge . . . in identifying intelligent, able-minded, strong women.”
Getting that opportunity in the place where she spent such a critical juncture of her basketball career is not lost on Feaster. She didn’t get much of a chance to return to Harvard during her professional career, unable to really digest the impact of her accomplishment on her former school.
“Just to be back here for me is strangely full circle,” she said. “I believe I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Definitely a level of comfort and a level of pride in coming back.”
Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.