Becky Hammon, who is retiring this month from a 16-season playing career in the WNBA, will join the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant coach next season, the NBA team announced on Tuesday.
Hammon, 37, becomes the second woman to serve on an NBA coaching staff. The first was Lisa Boyer, who was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ staff in the 2001-2002 season.
However, Boyer only worked part-time and was not paid by the team, while Hammon has been hired for a full-time, paid position.
Photo: Reuters
“Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs,” coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It’s a tremendous challenge and it comes with tremendous responsibility,” Hammon said. “There have been so many other women that are doing really, really great things and I’m just kind of following in their paths.”
Hammon spent much of the 2013-2014 NBA season around the Spurs’ organization in an unofficial capacity. Coming off a knee injury last year, Hammon began to think more seriously about finding a coaching position once her playing career was over.
The rehabilitation process allowed her to stay in San Antonio, Texas, and the Spurs welcomed her into their practices, coaching meetings and film review sessions. She watched games from behind the bench as the team went on to win their fifth championship. She referred to the whole experience on Tuesday as “an internship.”
Hammon said that Popovich made it clear to her that the hiring was strictly related to her qualifications in basketball.
“He says: ‘It just so happens you’re a woman,’” she said.
To the basketball community, it was not surprising that the Spurs were the first organization to make a woman a full-time coach as they are often praised for applying innovative and outside-the-box thinking to their basketball operations.
“I think it’s no surprise to anybody that they think a little bit differently down here,” Hammon said of the Spurs.
Hammon, a point guard, was a six-time All-Star selection in the WNBA and in 2011 she was named one of the 15 best players in league history.
She played eight seasons in New York after signing with the Liberty in 1999 and has spent the past eight seasons with the San Antonio Stars. Hammon averaged 8.6 points and 4.2 assists in 27 games for the Stars this season.
A native of Rapid City, South Dakota, Hammon in 2008 became a naturalized Russian citizen so that she could play for the country’s national basketball team in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Nancy Lieberman, the assistant general manager of the Texas Legends, the NBA Development League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, said Hammon’s hiring was a crucial step for the NBA and for women.
“First and foremost, this means respect,” said Lieberman, who served one season as head coach of the Legends and maintains aspirations to coach in the NBA.
“She did not get hired just because she is a woman. She was hired because she was qualified, because they know her personality, how she interacts with players, how she understands X’s and O’s,” Lieberman said.
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