Becky Hammon had a lot of success on an individual level as a player in the WNBA. She was a 6-time All-Star, led the league in assists in 2007, and even made First-Team All-WNBA twice. For all her great play, however, Hammon never managed to win it all, and in 2014, she retired from professional basketball.
She had, for a long time, expressed an interest in coaching and the San Antonio Spurs made her just the 2nd woman to ever coach in the NBA in 2014. Hammon served as an assistant to Gregg Popovich till December 2021, when the Las Vegas Aces hired her to be their head coach.
Becky Hammon Became The First Former WNBA Player To Win A Title In Her First Season As Head Coach
There had been rumors floating around for a couple of years that Hammon was in consideration for head coaching jobs in the NBA, but it never materialized, so she headed to the WNBA instead. The Aces also gave her a massive $1 million a year contract, which didn’t sit well with some, but she showed her worth by winning the championship in her first year at the helm.
Hammon won Coach of the Year as the Aces finished with a 26-10 record, and after dispatching the Phoenix Mercury and the Seattle Storm, they made it to the Finals to take on the Connecticut Sun. The Aces had lost in the Finals in 2020, but they weren’t to be denied this time around as they won 3-1, and Hammon became the first former WNBA player to win a title in her first season as head coach. She was understandably thrilled after Game 4 ended as she was finally getting her hands on that elusive championship.
You do wonder if some of those NBA teams that passed up on the chance to hire Hammon have some regrets now. She has learned under one of the best, if not the best coach in the history of the NBA in Popovich, and we have seen so many others from that coaching tree go on to do so well at other stops.
Hammon is just the latest success story as we have seen the likes of Ime Udoka and Mike Budenholzer, to name just two, excel as head coaches in the NBA. Perhaps one day in the future, she will join them in the league, but for now, she’ll be celebrating her first championship.
