Gregg Popovich and Becky Hammon will enter the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame together in 2023.
When Becky Hammon steps across the stage as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023, joining San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and former Spurs point guard Tony Parker, just know she’s no longer beating the bushes searching for a shot to become the NBA’s first female head coach.
“You’re going to have to come after me,” she told Time in May. “I’m not going to beg for a job anymore.”
Not that she ever needed to. Hammon, after all, is going to the Hall of Fame as a result of a 16-year WNBA career that included six All-Star nods and two All-WNBA First Team selections. What followed remains an ever-increasing list of coaching firsts for the 46-year old:
• First full-time female assistant coach in NBA history.
• First female head coach in NBA Summer League, where she’d be crowned champion.
• First woman to serve as part of an All-Star coaching staff.
• First female acting head coach in NBA history, taking over for Popovich after his ejection on Dec. 30, 2020.
• First rookie coach to capture a WNBA championship in 2022 with the Las Vegas Aces’ 3-1 win against the Connecticut Sun, shortly after Hammon seized Coach of the Year honors.
You sense the theme here?
“Besides the obvious that everybody’s heard and seen, she’s just a coach,” Popovich said. “It’s not gender specific. It’s none of that. She knows her stuff. She did it as a player, and it was very easy to see when she came over to the coaching side that she knew her stuff. Either you do or you don’t. Players can recognize that quickly, and of course, other coaches can.”
Underdog beginnings
Becky Hammon spent 16 seasons in the WNBA, the first 8 of which were with the New York Liberty (1999-2006).
Hammon’s coaching success stems from her prominent playing career as a WNBA point guard. Her extensive experience of constantly being counted out helps, too. She believes her underdog story as a lightly-recruited prep player that “looked very average” at every level of basketball resonates with fans. After all, Hammon became a three-time All-American at Colorado State, shattering the Western Athletic Conference scoring record (2,740 points) for both men’s and women’s basketball.
Despite her success, Hammon needed to prove herself all over again for a shot in the WNBA. She earned a roster spot in 1999 on the New York Liberty as an undrafted rookie. That season, Hammon backed up 2019 Hall of Fame inductee and former New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Teresa Weatherspoon, who will present the point guard for induction alongside 2016 inductee Sheryl Swoopes.
“I was somebody that most people could relate to … and inspire hope that, ‘Hey man, if she can do it, maybe I can do it too,’” Hammon said. “Really, that was how my basketball career was. It’s also maybe the same in this coaching thing, too. ‘Hey, if she can do it, [I can, too].’”
Longtime WNBA coach Dan Hughes was among the first to see her potential, having encountered Hammon as an opponent while devising plans to slow down the diminutive 5-foot-6 point guard. Hughes retired in 2021 after a 20-year career in the WNBA that included stops in Charlotte, Cleveland, San Antonio and Seattle, as well as a stint as an assistant on the USA Basketball Women’s National Team.
Hammon had emerged as a legitimate outside threat in those early years coming off the bench in New York, ranking among the WNBA’s top 3-point shooters in 2000 and ’02. She earned her first All-Star nod in 2003 after a breakout season where she averaged 14.7 points per game.
But when the Liberty traded her to the San Antonio Stars in 2007, Hughes leaned on Hammon’s leadership in guiding the Stars to five consecutive postseason appearances (2008-12). She finished her career as the Stars’ all-time leader in points per game (15.6), assists (1,133) and 3-point field goals (829).
“You knew she was going to have to fulfill a lot of expectations with that kind of trade,” Hughes said. “As I watched her and got to know her, it was like every stage of that first year reinforced why that was such a good decision. She never disappointed.”
In fact, during her first season playing for Hughes and the Stars, Hammon produced a career-high scoring average (18.8 ppg), earning the nickname “Big Shot Becky,” while leading the league in assists per game (5.0).
Despite her ascent in the WNBA, Hammon was not invited to try out for Team USA ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Instead, Hammon found her way to the international stage with Russia thanks to her time spent playing overseas in Moscow during the offseason. Hammon competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, helping the Russians earn a bronze medal in Beijing.
The next season back in San Antonio, Hammon led the Stars to the WNBA Finals, and followed that campaign by averaging a career-high 19.5 ppg in 2009. Two seasons later, she became just the seventh player in league history to score 5,000 points.
The South Dakota native retired as the WNBA leader in career free-throw percentage (89.7%), a mark that has since been eclipsed by Elena Delle Donne (93.8) and Sabrina Ionescu (91.3).
Her No. 25 jersey hangs from the rafters at the AT&T Center alongside all the former Spurs greats. That gave Hammon instant credibility inside San Antonio’s locker room for nearly eight seasons as an assistant coach. As former Spurs guard Bryn Forbes pointed out, “None of our jerseys are hanging up in there.”
Coaching impact and beyond
Hammon became the first woman to serve as coach at NBA Summer League in 2015.
When 19-year-old Dejounte Murray was drafted by the Spurs in 2016, he quickly found a kindred spirit in Hammon, who would ease his transition into the NBA through her own experience as a point guard.
“That was somebody that put their arms around me and wanted to be there for me,” said Murray, who now plays for the Atlanta Hawks. “She’s been through a lot. She saw and knew that I had been through a lot. So, we were able to build our relationship off always being counted out. We still talk to this day. I even go to Aces games. I’m so proud of her. Great person, great basketball player and a great coach. But I’m not surprised by anything she’s doing.”
Neither is Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka, who worked alongside Hammon as an assistant under Popovich.
“She’s just been through it as a player,” Udoka told NBA.com in 2019. “So a situation isn’t going to get her rattled on the court. I keep going back to her playing and being a point guard, specifically. She had to know when to keep players calm as well as herself. Then, also there’s times when you’ve got to get guys up, get them going and get on their asses a little bit. So that part is natural to her. She can deal with all the situations. So it’s easy to handle them when they come around whether that’s as a coach or a player.”
Hammon worked the majority of the 2013-14 season in an unofficial capacity with the Spurs while rehabbing a knee injury that would eventually force her to retire from the WNBA. Popovich granted Hammon unfettered access to practices, meetings and film sessions. The winningest coach in NBA history was impressed by Hammon’s basketball intelligence, work ethic and interpersonal skills, but most importantly her resourcefulness to share new ideas and stick by them in coaches’ meetings under intense debate.
Hammon talks with Spurs legend Tony Parker in 2014. Nine years later, they’re members of the same Hall of Fame class.
Udoka recalls those meetings: “(Popovich) wants conflict, wants different ideas. She’s going to state her opinion, and stick firm to it.”
Popovich quickly identified Hammon as a natural fit on San Antonio’s staff and offered her a position to become the first full-time female assistant coach in NBA history. She would spend eight years on Popovich’s staff before leaving the NBA to take over as coach of the Aces.
“Becky can do anything she wants,” Popovich said. “I just know how gifted she is. She’s a natural. So, whatever she wants to do in her future, I think is her choice. She’s got it all.”
Hughes sees it, too, and still marvels at Hammon’s ability to connect with players from both the NBA and WNBA.
“I’ve watched her interact with NBA guys,” he said. “And I’ll tell you what I’ve learned on the other side from coaching women: if you can help a player get better, you’ve got an audience. Becky has made an impression on players. She’s got an audience now because she can help make them better.
“When I coached her, she was in the last eight years of her career. I saw her evolve in a way that leaders have to. When you look at what a coach needs to be and is prepared to do, she checks all the boxes. She came into it in the right way. She’s done it in a way that when the time comes, later is greater.”
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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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