Jaina Hefford

Jaina Hefford appears in Planet Money vs. the NBA’s tanking problem as the PWHL figure explaining why the league was willing to try the Gold Plan. The source presents her as a Hockey Hall of Famer and Olympic medalist speaking from a league built with a willingness to experiment.

Her role is to make the Gold Plan concrete rather than theoretical. She explains the idea that once a team is eliminated, wins begin helping draft position, turning late-season effort into a reward.

Connections

• Professional Women’s Hockey League - league context.
• Gold Plan and Adam Gold - mechanism and named designer.
• Sports Draft Incentive Design and League Stakeholder Alignment - broader governance problem the PWHL example informs.