Becky Hammon surprised many with her latest career move, but now she is shedding some light on the decision.
Speaking with reporters Monday, the longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant revealed why she became the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces instead of a head coach in the NBA.
Hammon said that during her interviews for head coaching jobs in the NBA, teams told her, “You’ve only been in San Antonio, and you’ve never been a head coach,” per Spurs writer Matthew Tynan. Hammon added that she had no plans to leave the NBA but that Aces owner Mark Davis wanted her to be a head coach right now and that the opportunity was too good to pass up.
The ex-WNBA star Hammon had been on Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s staff since 2014, becoming the first female in NBA history to be a full-time assistant coach. It seemed like it was inevitable that she would become the NBA’s first-ever female head coach as well. Hammon had interviewed for NBA head coaching jobs as early as 2018 and was in the mix for multiple openings just a few months ago.
The alleged reasoning from NBA teams that Hammon did not have any prior head-coaching experience is fairly nonsensical. The league has five first-year head coaches total this season (Ime Udoka, Wes Unseld Jr., Jamahl Mosley, Willie Green, and Chauncey Billups). Several others (like Steve Nash, Mark Daigneault, Chris Finch and Stephen Silas) were recently hired with no prior head coaching experience. Additionally, there are many former coaches with NBA experience who should not and most likely will not sniff another head coaching job ever again (think Kurt Rambis, Vinny del Negro, Jim Boylen, Byron Scott, etc.).
While there may have been some reasons behind the scenes why Hammon did not become an NBA head coach, the “no experience” argument sounds like a pretty shoddy one. Now Hammon is off to become the head coach of the Aces, a job where she may ultimately feel more appreciated.
Photo: Kelley L. Cox-USA TODAY Sports
