Speaking as a casual San Antonio Spurs fan… I think she’d make an awesome head coach. She’s a protege of Greg Poppovich, the most admired coach around, and she’s earned the respect of the players on one of the NBA’s best franchises. I think she’d be a great hire for any team seeking a new head coach
But will some owner take a chance on her? Who?
The sad reality is “not a chance”. Women’s college basketball teams are less and less willing to hire female head coaches; I can’t see pro men’s teams willing to hire a female head coach.
That link also says there are no female head coaches in all of Division 1 men’s hoops. I think there’d have to be at least a few before this is a remotely conceivable idea. Being an NBA head coach is such a pressure cooker of a position. Most don’t last too long in one place. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I worry how a woman would deal with discontent players without being reduced to the perception of being a figurehead or marginalized some other way, as well as with the dysfunction which often permeates within front offices of NBA organizations. The Spurs were a great organization for Hammon to break this barrier on since they’re a rare organization that has ostensibly built and sustained a quality, respectful team culture top to bottom for years.
Rumor has it that Tennessee talked to their HOF women’s coach Pat Summit about coaching their men’s team but it’s not known if they ever actually made her an offer.
The Spurs and Pop are certainly the best organization and coach for anyone, male or female, to grow in and learn from. No doubt she’d be capable in time, if she’s not already. And frankly, the Spurs might be the only team bold enough to actually hire her as a head coach.
So, I wouldn’t say “no chance,” but I would say it’s unlikely.
Poppovich is not a politically correct guy- if he hired someone, it’s because he/she is smart and capable. I wasn’t sure the Hammon experiment would work so well, but it has.
I’m just not sure now if she’ll get a chance to go any higher in men’s basketball. She could probably have her pick of head coaching jobs in the WNBA or with any NCAA women’s team, but I’d like to see what she could do with the Knicks or the 76ers.
Cheryl Reeve, the winningest coach in the WNBA, has been asked about it several times. While many feel she’s completely qualified she’s said she really has no interest in it at this time.
If it were to ever happen that a female coach is hired as head coach of an NBA or Division I men’s team - they would have to be someone who is ready to be a lightning rod for controversy (ala Jackie Robinson - or for that matter HRC). For those that have been mentioned in this thread, they probably just want to be good coaches, but not lightning rods for controversy.
To be sure, if a woman with no NBA experience were plucked from the WNBA or the college ranks and made an NBA head coach, she’d be highly controversial.
But Becky Hammon has been paying her dues in the NBA like any other assistant coach, and she’s shown that she can command respect from top notch professionals. IF she gets a head coaching job, she can tell a rookie, “Tim Duncan and Tony Parker followed instructions from me, because they knew I could help them win- and I can help YOU win, too. I’ve DONE it.”
And if Greg Poppovich says, “She’s ready,” wouldn’t that carry some weight?
A bump so I can share this.
There’s no guarantee she’ll get the job, but Becky Hammon has been interviewed for the Bucks’ job.
I’d love to see her get it.
ISTM the best situation would be for a woman to take over the coaching of a really bad team, like the Browns in the NFL or Mavs in NBA. If they win, it’s upside, if they lose, they were already bad to begin with so it can’t be pinned on her exactly.
If she takes over a winning team like the Warriors (won’t happen, but for argument,) their wins would be credited to the actions of Kerr and those before her, but if the Warriors lose, she’ll be blamed for “running a winning team into the ground.”
To this day there are people that give all credit to Mark Jackson for building the Warriors and claim Kerr just waltzed in to take advantage of Jackson’s hard work. Not to mention the contingent that claims that anyone could coach the Warriors because of their talent.
Now these people are idiots, but they’re definitely out there. I agree it would be even worse for Hammon.
I think she will. She has the respect of top NBA players. I played against her in a pickup game once and she kicked my ass all over the court.
Great New Yorker article on her.
“She’s sort of like my big sister.” - Tony Parker
The barrier is truly immense, but IF anyone was going to do it, anywhere, it’s Hammon and San Antonio. You have there an absolutely unique situation; Gregg Popovich is, in my honest opinion, the greatest head coach/manager in the history of North American pro sport, from whom Hammon has by all accounts learned as much as a human can. Her position by Popovich’s side has not only given her skills and knowledge but gives her a degree of credibility in the eyes of NBA players you just cannot get anywhere else; Popovich is worshipped by NBA players, and if Coach Pop says Coach Hammon can coach, then by Christ, Coach Hammon can coach, for his word is law. Furthermore, San Antonio is an organization that is perfectly happy to buck trends and do whatever suits their fancy; while a less courageous organization might be more conservative, the Spurs do as they please.
If it’s NOT Hammon, then it may be no one; this set of circumstances might never arise again.
You may be right. Her best chance may actually be to take over the Spurs if and when Pop steps down, especially if he anoints her as his replacement.
She might actually have more trouble public-wise with her sexual orientation and her (mercenary) Russian citizenship than with her gender - unfairly, yes, but it’s there. Still, she’s had practice with it.
I’d long HEARD she was a lesbian and (perhaps) secretly married to her girlfriend, but didn’t know that for sure.
Regardless, even if Hammon got a head coaching job, she’d ALWAYS be an outlier. She wouldn’t be breaking down doors for other women, because almost none will get the chance to work on the staff of a top NBA coach to begin with.
Only true if she doesn’t win a title. If Hammon gets a gig and wins a title (or even just has a really strong run of success and makes the finals once or twice), I think you’ll see the doors swing open for other credible candidates pretty quickly. Successful moves being copied is probably the single most predictable thing about professional sports.