The NBA's San Antonio Spurs have an assistant coach named Becky Hammon.
For a long time, it was thought that Becky Hammon would be the first woman head coach in major pro men's sports.
She took her talents to where everyone knows she's worth it.
The Spurs assistant is going to Las Vegas to be the head coach of the WNBA's Aces.
She's ready to lead her own team right now, and she's confident that she's ready to do it.
She decided to take her talents where everyone knows she's worth it, because NBA franchises didn't recognize her talent or her readiness for a head coaching job. After eight years as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs, the six-time WNBA All-Star is leaving men's basketball to become the head coach and general manager of the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces.
The images are from Jacob Kupferman.
"This was not about the NBA or the WNBA at all," he said. "This was about me personally being ready to have a team and wanting to have a team and being presented with an opportunity to do so."
I think the NBA is close. I feel like they're a long way off from hiring a woman head coach. I don't know when it will happen. I know that the Aces have a lot of my attention.
Though she had no intentions of leaving the NBA at this point, the Aces gave her an offer that was too good to refuse: near-full control of her own team.
The former Spurs guard is being coached by Hammon.
A lot went into this decision. "I feel like I'm ready to have my own team, but I'm not quite sure." The organization made it very clear that they wanted me really, really bad. It's good to be wanted.
On New Year's Eve, Las Vegas announced that they had agreed to terms on a historic five-year contract that will make coach Greg Hammon the highest-paid coach in the league. The retired point guard said she never closed the door on returning to the league because she is from there.
It's "poetic" that she's assuming the helm of this particular team after spending the last half of her career with the San Antonio Stars.
During a game between the San Antonio Stars and Los Angeles Sparks, Hammon drove against the other team's player.
The NBA's failure to hire her to a head coaching position was a factor in her move to the W.
Being a head coach has something to do with it. I've never been a head coach, but I sat in a lot of NBA head coaching interviews, and people always said, "You've only been in San Antonio, and you've never been a head coach."
Popovich has an extensive coaching tree that spans the NBA and beyond. The San Antonio Spurs had at least five former assistants and players who became head coaches without head coaching experience, including Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka, and former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown.
The legendary San Antonio head coach is with the coach.
Both Budenholzer and Vaughn had no coaching experience outside of their time with the Spurs organization, but both eventually became NBA head coaching positions. Kerr had no experience as a coach before he was hired in Golden State.
Eight of the 30 current NBA head coaches were appointed to their first head coaching gig after only one prior NBA assistant coaching experience or no coaching experience at all. The same consideration was not given to Hammon.
"Mark Davis, the owner of the team, met me, and said, 'that's a head coach right now,'"Fargas said. That is a head coach. We're going after her. "She's the person." That's why they got me.
In September, the Las Vegas Aces will retire her jersey.
The final round of interviews for the Portland Trail blazers' open coaching gig was the time when Hammon made it back to the WNBA. According to reports, Jody Allen believed that Hammon was the best option to become her team's next head coach. Chauncey Billups, a former NBA player with just one season of assistant coaching experience and an accusation of sexual assault in his past, was chosen as the Trail Blazers' new coach.
Neil Olshey had a close relationship with the five-time NBA All-Star and favored him for the job. Olshey said that despite interviewing people that had a bigger body of work, more things we could point to, he put more emphasis on hiring someone with "natural gravitas, leadership skills, and upside."
Between the lines, he can read it.
RonaldMartinez
Over the course of my career... I was passed over because I didn't look like the part, I wasn't athletic enough, and I wasn't fast enough. I didn't look at that part, so I was passed over.
She pointed to her heart and said that she wanted to get to the point where people are hired based on what they bring. I've been hit many times and you just keep getting back up. You don't know what to do. It's a habit.
"You just keep getting back up because, and I'm not saying life doesn't life hit everybody, but how we respond to it is what is eventually gonna define us, not the hit."
The original article is on Insider.
