Time isn’t right for Bucks, Hammon
Give the Milwaukee Bucks credit for being bold and progressive in interviewing Becky Hammon for the head coaching job. The team’s owners and management have shown in the way they’ve engaged the many and varied constituencies in Milwaukee that they are all about diversity and inclusion, which should be applauded.
Hammon’s credentials are impressive: star player in the WNBA, hired by the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 as the first full-time female assis- tant coach in NBA history, apprenticed under Gregg Popovich, coached the Spurs’ Summer League team to the title in 2015.
Players and coaches who have been around her rave about her basketball IQ and her interpersonal skills. She’s a former elite point guard, smart and savvy and tough enough to tune out the people who called her “unpatriotic” and a “traitor” when she played for Russia in the Olympic Games.
Without question, Hammon is qualified to interview with the Bucks.
But this is the wrong team and the wrong time for her to get the job.
If it were solely about marketing, you could justify hiring her. It would be the biggest sports story of the year, one of the hottest topics of conversation in every locker room, living room and board room in America. Every blogger, tweeter, texter and talking head would weigh in and the buzz would last for weeks, for months, for however long Hammon was in charge and probably long after she wasn’t.
The Bucks, though, aren’t a team desperate for something to hype. They’re a player or two away from becoming a serious contender, they’re moving into a new arena and they’ve got one of the biggest stars in the game in Giannis Antetokounmpo.
What they need is an experienced coach with a strong personality to get them to the next level. I’m not saying Hammon can’t be that person. I’m saying it’s too big a risk to find out whether she is or isn’t.
There is ample evidence that the Bucks, to a certain extent, tuned out Jason Kidd. And though they finished the regular season 21-16 under Joe Prunty and got to Game 7 in the first round of the playoffs, there were signs that they didn’t fall in line under his leadership, either. Guard Malcolm Brogdon said he “couldn’t fathom” how the team could repeat the same mistakes over and over.
There would be considerable pressure on the Bucks players to say and do all the right things under Hammon. Players around the league who have publicly supported her, including LeBron James, would be watching. Pau Gasol’s impassioned endorsement in a story he wrote for The Players Tribune leaves no doubt about how he and many in the Association feel about her.
But human nature being what it is, sooner or later a player would get upset about playing time. Someone would question a rotation or a late-game coaching decision. And heaven forbid the Bucks lose a couple close games at the buzzer. The vocal segment of fans who believe a woman can’t or shouldn’t coach an NBA team would be relentless and cruel in their criticism.
Hammon probably could handle all that. She’s already proven she is capable in most every other way.
But what if she failed? What if the team took a step backward under her leadership? The Bucks would come under fire for allowing a “social experiment” to derail their title aspirations. Critics would howl that the ownership group was out of touch, that the team wasted two or three years of Antetokounmpo’s prime on a publicity stunt.
It’s just too big a gamble for a team teetering between good and potentially great.
Someday, perhaps soon, Hammon or another woman will get the chance to lead an NBA team from the bench. The idea of a female head coach is a nonstarter in the NFL or Major League Baseball, but the Association is far more progressive than the other major sports leagues.
The time is coming. But not here. Not now.