If NBA head coaching jobs were handed out strictly on the basis of résumé, Becky Hammon would be in the lead chair on an NBA bench a long time ago.
But we know that’s not how it works.
Instead, every year the NBA elevates/hires/promotes men who aren’t as qualified – including Denver’s David Adelman – to head coaching jobs, because that’s always the way it’s been done. It’s one of the few innovations in basketball that hasn’t happened yet, and remains one of the increasingly few glass ceilings that remain unbroken in sports.
In case you’re new here, Becky Hammon is a Colorado State University legend. An All-American point guard in FoCo, Hammon’s the most decorated basketball player in school history, male or female. She was a three-time Player of the Year, four-time All-Conference, and the list goes on… and it just got better after she turned pro.
We’re talking about a six-time WNBA All-Star. Two times, she was an All-WNBA First-teamer, and a second-teamer twice more. Hammon was named to the 15th, 20th and 25th All-WNBA Anniversary teams. She was a three-point champion, and a skill-challenge champion as an All-Star – and she was an Olympian.
You get the drift.
Her number was retired by two franchises, San Antonio and Las Vegas. She’s in the New York Liberty’s Ring of Honor.
Hammon is a member of three basketball Halls of Fame: the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, the Collegiate Hall of Fame… and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Yes, that’s the Hall of Fame.
So how are those playing credentials?
As for coaching, she’s led the Las Vegas Aces to three WNBA titles, including this year; she was the league’s Coach of the Year in 2022 and won the Commissioner’s Cup that same season.
Makes her a great coach for women’s hoops, right?
Think again.
Hammon was also the lead assistant for Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs for seven seasons, and coached the team’s summer league entrant to the title in 2015. She was part of an NBA All-Star coaching staff, and at one point, became the first female acting NBA head coach in a game Popovich got ejected from.
Fellow Hall of Famer Pau Gasol was quoted as saying this about Hammon: “I’ve played with some of the best players of this generation… and I’ve played under two of the sharpest minds in the history of sports in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. And I’m telling you: Becky Hammon can coach. I’m not saying she can coach pretty well. I’m not saying she can coach enough to get by. I’m not saying she can coach almost at the level of the NBA’s coaches. I’m saying: Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”
Hammon was a finalist for the Portland Trail Blazers head coaching job that went to Chauncey Billups in 2021. But since then, she’s fallen off NBA radar screens. Meanwhile, less-qualified guys like New Orleans Pelicans new head coach James Borrego – a pedestrian player in college in San Diego who never played professionally and is also a former Spurs assistant – get jobs she’s better qualified for. Borrego has a nondescript coaching résumé, having bounced around four different organizations before landing in New Orleans as the interim HC for this season.
He and Adelman aren’t the only NBA coaches who would lose a résumé comparison with Becky Hammon. The question is, when will a brave (and smart) NBA owner going to take the chance to break one of those few remaining glass ceilings in sports and simply hire the right person for the job?
