If I didn’t read it with my own eyes I may have not believed it. Becky Hammon officially has the Gregg Popovich seal of approval. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich opened up about assistant coach Becky Hammon in a rare radio interview with former NBA player-turned-KNBR radio host Tom Tolbert, Gregg Popovich elaborated on Hammon’s impact on the Spurs, her leadership and his thought process for hiring her.This is a truly great insightful interview, and I strongly hope that you all make some time to listen to it.
Hammon made history this summer in leading the Spurs to a Summer League title. However its how she won the title that gained everyone’s praise, she did so in a way synonymous with the Spurs brand of basketball. No shenanigans, just wins.
You can listen to the entire interview here, but here are Pop’s comments about Hammon:
It became huge when we hired her, and now it’s even bigger because of the Summer League situation. But we didn’t even think about that stuff. I hired her because she was in my coach’s meetings for an entire year because she was injured. She’s got opinions and solid notions about basketball. Obviously, she was a great player. As a point guard, she’s a leader, she’s fiery, she’s got intelligence, and our guys just respected the heck out of her, so she’s coaching with us, she’s running drills. So that’s why we made her a full-time coach and gave her the opportunity to coach at Summer League. I don’t even look at it as, well, she’s the first female this and that and the other. She’s a coach, and she’s good at it. I think some people thought this was some kind of gimmick, or we were just trying to be cool. I’m glad she’s there. I respect her opinion, I enjoy the give-and-take with her, and when she went to the Summer League, that stuff’s about development. It gives coaches a chance to coach, but the real reason you’re there is to watch your new draft pick or a free agent that you might like develop and hopefully make your team. That was her purpose at Summer League, and she did a great job trying to make guys play the way we wanted them to play.
Gregg Popovich made it clear that he was never flustered by bringing in a female coach and that Hammon’s qualifications and ability were his utmost considerations. So we shouldn’t be surprised if we see her (another Popovich protege) as a coach in the near future. Adam Silver himself recently said that he won’t be surprised if we see a woman coaching an NBA team, but truth is nobody knows when it will happen, however at some point Hammon is going to get her shot at a head coaching job and she will have definitely earned it.
Link again if you missed the first one up top.
