Basketball has always played a major role in Becky Hammon’s life, and her talent and determination have propelled her to success as both a player and a coach. Recently, Hammon made history by becoming the first woman to serve as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), paving the way for other women to lead on and off the court.
Hammon has defied the odds throughout her illustrious basketball career. A South Dakota native, she started off playing for her high school team, where she was commended as South Dakota Player of the Year. But despite her success as a young athlete, she didn’t initially attract much attention from college recruiters, who felt she was too small and too slow. That didn’t stop the determined Hammon, who eventually went on to play at Colorado State University, where she proved those recruiters wrong. She turned the CSU women’s basketball program around by becoming a three-time All-American and was the most decorated women’s basketball player in Colorado State history. She later joined the WBNA and in 2011, was named one of its Top 15 Players of All Time.
During WNBA offseason, Hammon played professionally overseas, for instance in Italy with Trentino Rovereto Basket from 2001 to 2002. Always one to dream bigger, she set her sights on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. After failing to receive an invitation to try out for the U.S. national team, she became a naturalized Russian citizen and eventually played for Russia at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. While the decision demonstrated Hammon’s dedication to the sport and her desire to progress her athletic career, some criticized the move, calling it “unpatriotic.”
Hammon stood by her decision and her patriotism, refusing to let it tarnish her success with the WNBA. She played for the New York Liberty from 1999 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2014 she played with the San Antonio Stars. A six-time WNBA All-Star, in 2015 she was also inducted into the Ring of Honor, which recognizes players who have made significant contributions to the excellence of the New York Liberty and to the WNBA as a whole.
Hammon has always had a passion for coaching as well and had planned to pursue it following her career as a player. As fate would have it, she blew out her knee in 2013 and was forced to sit out for a year. During that time, she attended and observed Spurs’ practices, coaches’ meetings, and games. Then, when a flight back home with Gregg Popovich prompted the Spurs to hire her as assistant coach, she jumped on the opportunity to coach professionally.
She served as the assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs beginning in 2014 and was the first female to be paid for that full-time job. At the end of 2020, she took over as acting head coach of the team after Gregg Popovich was ejected during a loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, as the first female acting head coach in the NBA, Hammon aims to set an example for other women interested in the management side of the sport. "When it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there's no reason why a woman couldn't be in the mix and shouldn't be in the mix," she said.