Reports: Hammon finalist for Blazers’ head coach job
San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon is a finalist for the Portland Trail Blazers’ head coach position, multiple outlets reported Monday. She is the first woman to reach the last group in an NBA coaching search.
Hammon, 44, joined the coach Gregg Popovich’s staff with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. On Dec. 30, she became the first woman to serve as a head coach in the NBA when she took over for Popovich after he was ejected before halftime of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
She played in the WNBA and overseas from 19992012.
According to ESPN, Hammon and Los Angeles Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups will receive second interviews.
Others who interviewed with Portland included South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, Brooklyn Nets assistant Mike D’Antoni and Brent Barry, Spurs vice president of basketball operations. Former NBA head coach Jason Kidd withdrew his name from consideration earlier.
Portland’s new coach will replace Terry Stotts, who parted ways with the
Blazers on June 5 after the team’s fourth first-round playoff exit in five seasons.
Simmons’ future with 76ers looks uncertain
Ben Simmons backed his way to the basket, spun around Danilo Gallinari for the easy look at the net — an uncontested layup, a dunk — and he passed. Passed the ball. Passed on the shot. Passed on the chance to tie the game.
Joel Embiid threw up his hands in disbelief. With a chance to tie Game 7 against Atlanta late in the fourth quarter, Simmons surrendered the chance to play postseason hero and fed the ball to Matisse Thybulle.
“I just assumed Gallo was coming over my back,” Simmons said.
Simmons thought Gallinari would try to foul him — much as the Hawks did throughout the seven-game
series victory to reach the Eastern Conference finals — and going to the line in the clutch was a risk the AllStar guard was not willing to take.
His free-throw shooting was the poison in the postseason that ultimately knocked out the top-seeded Sixers. Simmons shot 25-for73 (34%) from the line in the playoffs and missed 27 alone against the Hawks.
Unacceptable numbers for any player, much less a former No. 1 draft pick with more than $140 million left on his contract. He can’t shoot 3s (5-for-34 career), his free throws failed him and now Simmons is afraid to dunk. Coach Doc Rivers went from Simmons’ most ardent supporter early in the playoffs to openly wondering about the guard’s fate in Philly.
Simmons lost his shot, his confidence, and potentially his job in Philadelphia.
Rivers wasn’t ready to rule out the return of the maligned guard if he’s ready to put in offseason work.
“I’m very bullish on Ben, still,” Rivers said Monday. “But there’s work. Ben will be willing to do it and that’s the key. Sometimes you have to go through stuff to see it and be honest with it. Obviously, what Ben just went through, I can’t imagine that because he has so much greatness around him and all the things that he does.”
His flashes of greatness — he is a three-time All-Star — are fleeting in the postseason.
Simmons did not attempt a shot in the fourth quarter in Game 2. He did the same in Games 4 through 7 — 0-for-0 in the final period. Not one single shot in the fourth over five playoff games.
“There’s areas he can fix quickly, in my opinion, that will take him to another level,” Rivers said. “I look at this as a great challenge but definitely a doable one.”
Sixers guard Danny Green said Monday it was unfair that “everyone wants the narrative it’s all Ben’s fault.”
“It’s not just Ben. We all together win or lose,” Green said. “He’s a mentally tough kid, usually. We don’t know what was going on. It happens with players. Ben has gone through quite a bit this year and it’s not his fault that we lost.”