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When Spurs coach Gregg Popovich trudged down the tunnel at the AT&T Center after being sent off Wednesday, the magnitude of the moment – Becky Hammon replacing him to become the first woman to act as head coach in a game of the NBA regular season – it didn’t get installed immediately.
“Not on the way to the locker room,” Popovich told reporters in a video conference before San Antonio played host to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. “Otherwise, he was emotionally engaged.”
As Popovich’s anger subsided, recognition for Hammon’s historic feat began to spread across the country. And the man who added her to his team seven seasons ago wondered why anyone was surprised.
“It’s been business as usual from the beginning. We didn’t hire Becky to make history,” Popovich said. “She earned it. She’s qualified. She’s wonderful at what she does. I wanted her on my staff for the work she does. And it turns out she’s a woman, which basically should be irrelevant, but she’s not in our world.” As we have seen, it has been very difficult for women to obtain certain positions. For us it was like always. “
Popovich, a five-time champion, three-time Coach of the Year and infallible Hall of Famer, said Hammon “knows more about the Lakers than I do” and was tasked with finding the defending champs heading into the game.
And Popovich, 71, insisted that there are many other women like Hammon, limited by social stereotypes but not by skills.
“Women do the same job just as well and better than men. That is a fact. There is no reason why someone like Becky and other women can’t be coaches in the NBA,” she said. “On a larger scale, that’s why it wasn’t a big deal for me, because I know her. And I know her abilities, and I know her worth, and I know her future is very, very bright. I understand the attention she got, but in all honesty. I assumed that most people already knew that I was qualified to be a head coach in the NBA. “
Hammon, 43, was a six-time WNBA All-Star in his 16 seasons with the New York Liberty and San Antonio Silver Stars. She was the first woman hired full time to an NBA coaching staff in 2014. Last season, there were 11 women on the NBA coaching staff throughout the league.
“There are many, many, many qualified women who are being retained,” Popovich said. “And it’s just the nature of the world. It’s slowly changing, but the sooner the better.”
