Thanking Hammon, awaiting inevitable
In 2014, the San Antonio Spurs hired Becky Hammon as the first female full-time assistant coach in any of the four major professional sports leagues in North America.
In 2015, Hammon coached the Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League title, making her the first female head coach to win the title.
On Dec. 30, 2020, when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was ejected from a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Hammon became the first woman to act as head coach in NBA history.
In July, when the Portland Trailblazers interviewed Hammon, she became the first woman to be a finalist for a head coaching job in the NBA. When she didn’t land the post, many Spurs fans were disappointed — but also happy because it kept alive what seemed the inevitable: Hammon would become the first woman to serve as head coach of an NBA team when she succeeded Popovich.
The inevitable was not to be. At least, not yet, and not in the way we thought it would be. After eight years with the Spurs, Hammon is going back to the WNBA, where her legend was made. The former five-time All-star with the New York Liberty and San Antonio Silver Stars is now the head coach and general manager of the Las Vegas Aces, signing a record-breaking five-year contract.
More so than when she didn’t get the Portland job, this is bittersweet for Spurs fans. Sweet, because the talent of Hammon, who became a national figure during her pathbreaking time with the Spurs, is being recognized and rewarded, and she can build and coach her own team.
But it’s bitter, not only because Hammon will leave the Spurs at the end of this season but because she felt that neither she nor any other female coach would soon be an NBA head coach.
The trail Hammon was blazing made her the likely choice to break that barrier. If not Hammon, who? If not soon, when?
Maybe this is a detour. Perhaps she’ll return to San Antonio to coach the Spurs — or against them. Whether or not she becomes the first female head coach of an NBA team, we wish her well in the WNBA. We still believe that, first or not, she will coach an NBA team.
Thank you, Becky Hammon, and good luck.