The San Antonio Spurs hired WNBA player Becky Hammon as an assistant coach on the staff of Gregg Popovich, making a progressive and historic move, as Hammon is now just the second female to be an NBA assistant and it comes after a long and storied career playing basketball, including with the New York Liberty.
According to ESPN.com, Hammon was hired by the Spurs this summer and she will join the team after the 2014 WNBA season, as she is set to retire at the end of the year. Hammon is dealing with a knee injury and earlier in the summer she made the announcement that she would be retiring after this season, which is the 16th for her in the WNBA.
Hammon has been named to the all-star team six times and she was also named one "the league's top 15 players of all time in July 2011" according to ESPN.com and she brings years of basketball experience to the bench. Popovich has been asked in the past about women coaching male players and he said there should be no issues with that and he said he expects his players to learn a great deal from her this season.
According to ESPN.com, Hammon leaves her WNBA career as one of the all-time leaders for the San Jose Stars and she is their leader in assists, three point field goals and she is second in games and points for the franchise. Hammon also played for the New York Liberty in her early career.
"I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement Tuesday. "Having observed her working with our team this past season, I'm confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."
