After winning the WNBA title, Becky Hammon’s NBA future is a hot topic

It didn’t take long for Becky Hammon’s future to become a hot topic after she coached the Las Vegas Aces to a WNBA championship on Sunday.

Shortly after the Aces won their first title, a reporter asked the former Spurs assistant if she thought “everyone in the NBA” should feel “stupid” for not hiring her as head coach.

“I’m used to people not choosing me; I don’t know if you are aware. I’m just doing me. Hammon said.

Indeed, Hammon has a long history of proving skeptics wrong.

When she was coming out of high school in Rapid City, South Dakota, they said she didn’t have the athletic tools as an undersized guard to become a Division I player.

After playing at Colorado State as a three-time All-American, Hammon heard skeptics say she wouldn’t succeed in the WNBA as an undrafted rookie. Sixteen seasons later, including six as an All-Star, there were questions about whether she could become one of Gregg Popovich’s assistants after joining the Spurs.

And even after proving herself on Popovich’s bench, she was rejected by several NBA teams who interviewed her for their head coaching vacancies.

“I’ve been on a lot of (NBA) head coaching interviews, and (there are) two things people always said: ‘You’ve only been to San Antonio and you’ve only never been a head coach,’” Hammon said after the Aces hired her in late December with the promise of making her the first coach in the WBNA with a salary above $1 million.

By leading the Aces to a championship, she proved that none of these facts were negative.

Chelsea Gray scored 20 points to lead the Aces to a 78-71 victory in Game 4 of the best-of-five series, a result Hammon celebrated on the court with her sons Cayden, 7, and Samuel, 4 years.

Popovich was quick to praise Hammon.

“We are all excited for Coach Hammon,” he said in a statement released by the Spurs on Twitter.

“Winning a championship is a remarkable achievement for a head coach in his first year with a team. Yet, I am not at all surprised by his success.”

The Spurs made Hammon the first full-time paid female assistant in NBA history in 2014 after she completed a playing career that included eight seasons with the San Antonio Stars, who moved to Vegas in 2018.

Hammon left the Spurs after last season to coach the Aces. She becomes the fourth member of Popovich’s coaching tree to win a championship, joining Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, Mike Budenholzer of the Milwaukee Bucks and Doc Rivers, who won a title with the Boston Celtics.

She is also the first in WNBA history to win a title in her first season as head coach.

So much for his lack of experience.

“Every hard thing I went through built something in me that I needed later,” Hammon, 45, said after Sunday’s game, according to ESPN.com. “And even though it sucks in the moment not to be picked or not to get injured (as a player) or whatever, the difficult things build in you things that are necessary for life, and you will use later., (even though) it may not seem like it at the time.

“For me, it’s not really about proving others wrong, it’s about proving myself right.”

Only five rookie NBA head coaches in the last 60 years have won a championship title, ESPN.com reported. The most recent to do so was Nick Nurse, with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Nurse, however, had been a head coach for several years at other levels.

With her success as a pioneering assistant with the Spurs, Hammon seemed well-positioned to become the first female head coach in one of the four major men’s professional leagues in the United States.

She may still have this opportunity.

“Becky has proven time and time again that she has a unique understanding and passion for the game of basketball,” Popovich said. “Congratulations to Becky, her players and the entire Aces organization. They played great throughout the season and were a real joy to watch.”

Many Spurs fans would like to see Hammon return to the Spurs after the 73-year-old Popovich retires. The NBA’s all-time winningest coach and five-time champion is under contract this season as the league’s highest-paid head coach, earning $11 million.

Even with the championship she won on Sunday, Hammon might still struggle to break the NBA’s glass ceiling.

“…If my name was Brian and I had played 16 years in the NBA, I would have been hired and fired multiple times as an NBA coach by now,” Hammon said. “That’s exactly what it is.”

Hammon’s experience with the Spurs prepared her well to lead the Aces.

In 2015, she coached the Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League title. In December 2020, she served as interim head coach after Popovich was ejected from a game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“(He) made such an investment in me,” she said of Popovich. “I spent thousands of hours sitting next to him at games, at movies, at dinners, learning things.”

Among the things she learned from Popovich: Relationships, whether with family, friends, co-workers or teammates, are more important than wins and losses.

“She feels she was very fortunate as a player to have coaches who saw the big picture,” Brenda Milano, Hammon’s wife, told ESPN. “It’s not just about basketball, it’s about life.”