Just try to stand in Becky Hammon’s way. She’ll go over the top of you, around you, through you, fly over your head – whatever it takes. You don’t stand between Becky Hammon and her dreams.

Of course, why would you want to? This is a gifted, skilled, strong woman. And she just so happens to be an assistant coach for an NBA basketball team – the San Antonio Spurs — you know, the reigning NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

San Antonio Spurs Announcement

The Spurs made history Tuesday, August 5th, by announcing Hammon would be their new assistant coach. No woman has ever served as a full-time, salaried assistant coach for an NBA team. Hammon will be working behind the Spurs bench during games and traveling with the team.

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said of the hiring:

“I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff. 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.”

Hammon, for her part, will be TCB (taking care of business). When asked what her role will be with the Spurs, her succinct answer was, “I’ll be doing the same things that all the other assistants will be doing.” She did temper that with the following acknowledgement:

“It’s a tremendous challenge, and it comes with tremendous responsibility. There have been so many other women that are doing really, really great things, and I’m just kind of following in their paths.”

Becky Hammon and Basketball

Hammon is a Wild West girl, having been born and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota.  She played college basketball for the Colorado State Rams, being named an All American player as well as Colorado Sportswoman of the Year. She set many records including WAC all-time leading scorer, points per game leader and total points leader, earning her a spot in the Colorado State University Sports Hall of Fame.

Hammon played for 16 seasons with the Women’s National Basketball Association. From 1999 to 2006 she played for the New York Liberty. In 2007, she was traded to the San Antonio Silver Stars. Playing in Texas really worked for her as she got named to the All WNBA 1st Team, 2nd Team and All Star more than once during her seven years with the Silver Stars.

Hammon has been named one of the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of All-Time. She ranks seventh in WNBA history in points (with 5,809), fourth in assists (1,687) and sixth in games (445).

Hammon sustained an ACL tear in July of 2013, forcing her to miss the remainder of that season. While recovering from that injury, she attended Spurs practices, coaching meeting and film-review sessions. She even stood behind the bench for home games. She referred to that period as “an internship.”

It was a successful one. On July 23, 2014, Hammon announced her retirement from the WNBA. Just two weeks later, the Spurs announced her hiring.

Becky Hammon’s Determination

So, yes, Hammon’s succeeded in a woman’s sports world. She’s succeeding in a man’s sports world. She succeeded in a Russian sports world, too.

See, that bit about not standing in Hammon’s way was only partially about her hard work with the WNBA and inclusion into the coaching world of the NBA. In 2008, for some inexplicable reason, Team USA failed to invite Hammon to even try out for their Olympic Team. Hammon didn’t allow that to deter her. She didn’t give up on her Olympic dream – she became a naturalized Russian citizen.

That was and still is a controversial decision. People questioned her patriotism and even suggested she was motivated by money. These people must not understand the elite athlete’s mind. Elite athletes live in a world of their own, and their main motivation is competing. Hammon wasn’t going to get the chance to compete with Team USA. So she problem-solved and competed with Team Russia.

That must have been an agonizing decision for Becky Hammon to make. This is one determined woman, though, and she made it.

So, congratulations to the San Antonio Spurs – they’ve got one more fierce competitor on their side.

Nadia Archuleta