Becky Hammon is already one of the best WNBA players ever. Now a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, she’s also won an NBA Summer League championship, as head honcho for the Spurs’ offseason kiddies.
What’s next?
Coaching the women’s basketball team at Florida, perhaps.
According to Mike Robinson over at Swish Appeal, Hammon is among the finalists for the Gators’ job:
Becky Hammon has all of the necessary ingredients to not be just a good head coach one day, but a great one, once given the opportunity. And it looks like Florida is zeroing in on the WNBA legend and current San Antonio Spurs assistant coach.
Hammon is a finalist for the vacancy with the Gators, multiple sources tell Swish Appeal. She will be visiting the Gainesville campus in the next couple of days, as Florida is down to their final three candidates — with Hammon being at the top of the list.
Florida alum and current Spur David lee has talked to Hammon about the job, because of course he has, per Tom Osborn of the San Antonio Express-News:
Florida alumnus David Lee said he has talked to Becky Hammon about women's job at the school. Hammon is reportedly 1 of 3 finalists. #Spurs
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) March 22, 2017
Lee also offered his endorsement of Hammon—both for this job, and also future ones in the NBA:
Said Lee of Hammon being linked to Florida, "Knowing makeup of the campus and how the women's basketball is there, she'd be a great fit."
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) March 22, 2017
Lee also said he thinks Hammon could also blaze trail as 1st female NBA head coach, "If anybody is going to do it, it's her." #Spurs
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) March 22, 2017
Lee said Hammon is as "good as anybody Xs and OS-wise" and also has a "great disposition…She does an unbelievable job for us." #Spurs
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) March 22, 2017
One of the common, outright misogynistic tropes is that Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made Hammon. He hasn’t. He’s not the type of person to prop up underserving coworkers. Hammon is a fantastic basketball mind, and that’s that, period.
Her experience under Popovich, though, should make her a tantalizing option for Florida. But Popovich’s assistants, such as Ettore Messina and Ime Udoka, are almost always linked to new head coaching vacancies in the NBA. So even if Hammon doesn’t get the chance to crush it as the chief at Florida, her pipeline to other opportunities, at any level, is far from closed. Her stock, at every level, will only improve with time.
