“How can I not be a part of this group? You could just feel that they were building something special.”
Becky Hammon is a legend in the WNBA. She went undrafted and played in the league for 16 seasons playing for the New York Liberty before finishing her career with the San Antonio Stars. When she called it a career as a professional athlete she retired as the Stars franchise leader in assists per game (5.1) and scoring average (15.6), and the WNBA leader in career free throw percentage (89.7).
The Stars eventually moved to Las Vegas in 2018 they were led by NBA Champion Bill Laimbeer until December 31, 2021. That job now belongs to Becky Hammon.
Hammon, who led the Liberty and Stars to a WNBA Finals appearances, is leaving her role as one of the toughest coaches among the NBA’s assistants.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich hired Hammon in 2014 as a full-time assistant making her the first woman in league history to have that role.
“I’ve sat under now arguably the best coach in basketball history for eight years after I complete this season,” Hammon said in a Zoom call with reporters. “And, you know, I’ve just sat on so many meetings, so many practices, so many preps for playoff games or regular-season games.”
She was expected to make history again becoming the first head coach in the NBA but after multiple interviews, that opportunity has yet to happen.
“I played 16 years. Then eight years with Coach Pop and the Spurs. So I’m working on 24 years in a professional arena and I’m super, super grateful for all those years because it was really all training ground for me, for what I’m going to do next.”
Eight years after her retirement from the league and making history with Popovich, Hammon is now back with the Aces, this time in their new home and as their head coach.
“Well, here’s the thing,” Hammon responded when asked how being interviewed for NBA coaching jobs impacted her decision. “In some ways, I feel like I was very close. I was very close.”
“This was not really about the NBA or the WNBA. This was about me personally being ready to have a team and wanting to have a team. Wanting to sit in that chair and then be presented with an opportunity to do so. And, you know, NBA jobs are hard to get. In some ways, I feel like the NBA maybe is close in other ways. I feel like they are a long way off from hiring [a female head coach]. I don’t know when it could happen.”
The mother of two says she had a lot of sleepless nights deciding to leave the Spurs and start a new journey with the Aces.
“When they first called, I had no intentions of leaving the NBA at this point.”
But the opportunity to coach a team that made it to the WNBA Finals in 2020 was too good to pass up.
“It’s an opportunity for me to sit in the big chair and be a head coach of a major professional sports league. And so I feel like I’m ready to have my own team, and this is the organization that made it very, very obvious they wanted me. And so it’s always good to be wanted. And so it quickly became evident to me that, you know, Las Vegas was the place for me.”
Hammon will remain with the Spurs, who are set to play the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night on Sportsnet, until the spring.
“It’s going to be very busy there’s a lot of work ahead for me. Getting staff in place is my first priority. And we have free agency coming up on the 15th, so I’m going to hit the ground running. I still have to do my duties here with the Spurs, which is very demanding and requires a lot of time. But I will be pulling double duty for a while here until April.“
With Hammon taking the reins in Vegas, seven of the 12 coaches in the league are women, potentially eight depending on who the Phoenix Mercury replace Sandy Brondello with.
“This is a step forward. Being the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces is a step forward and a step in the right direction for myself, for women’s basketball, and I think I cannot emphasize the importance of it.”
“If you can see it you can be it. It’s important for little girls to see that, but it’s also important for little boys to see that because if we’re going to talk about changing minds, you have to change it generationally, which means my two little boys need to know what it looks like to be a leader and to them, their mom’s a leader. And that’s how they look at it.”
The Aces finished their last season losing to the Phoenix Mercury in the semi-finals and the season before to the Seattle Storm in the Finals.
“I won’t be doing a total recall or massive changes, I think they have some really good pieces in place in what it’s about is finding the chemistry with those players building that foundation out.”
“I think that championship is well within reach.”
The Aces will open up their season on May 6th vs the Mercury. Laimbeer, who celebrated his 300th win as a WNBA coach in 2021, will remain with the team, focusing initially on assisting with the team’s roster construction for the upcoming season.
