Jaina Hefford

Jaina Hefford appears in Planet Money vs. the NBA’s tanking problem as the [[ProfessionalWomensHockeyLeague|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.