After winning a championship in 2022, Becky Hammon is focused on the Aces and not the Raptors’ coaching vacancy.
Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon is focused on the 2023 WNBA season.
The Aces won their first championship last season in her first year as head coach and unveiled a state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind facility on Thursday. However, the WNBA season starts on May 20, and Hammon said she has one focus.
When asked about the Toronto Raptors head coaching vacancy, Hammon made her intentions clear.
“I’m not commenting on Toronto,” Hammon said. “This is all about the Aces, and I won’t take one moment away from these women to talk about them boys.”
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Hammon, however, is in the running for the vacancy, as per ESPN. Despite this, Hammon is all-in on the WNBA season and is looking to defend the Aces’ title.
The Raptors have secured permission to speak to Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon.
Hammon is a six-time WNBA All-Star, WNBA Coach of the Year and the first rookie coach to win a WNBA title when she led the Aces to their championship.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 2023 induction class on Saturday, and Becky Hammon is part of it.
Hammon is a six-time WNBA All-Star, two-time All-WNBA first-team member, the 2022 WNBA Coach of the Year and first rookie coach to win a WNBA title. She led the Las Vegas Aces to the 2022 title, the first sports professional championship for the city of Las Vegas.
Hammon made history with the San Antonio Spurs when she became the first female assistant coach officially hired by an NBA team. She coached under Gregg Popovich for eight seasons. Popovich is the NBA’s all-time winningest coach with more than 1,360 wins with the Spurs. He is also being inducted into the Hall in 2023.
Popovich has always championed Hammon and lauded her basketball knowledge. He even spoke to the Aces during their championship run.
Enshrinement weekend will start Friday, Aug. 11 at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort, the home of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun. Coincidentally, the Sun are the team the Aces beat to secure their first WNBA championship. The festivities kick off with an awards gala, the Class of 2023 jacket and ring presentations and the annual Hall of Fame Awards.
The former Spurs assistant thinks a 2022 Finals rematch could be on tap.
The Boston Celtics’ midseason turnaround in the 2021-22 NBA season has been one of the most impressive by any team in the history of the modern NBA. The Celtics transformed themselves from a .500 club people were calling to break up into a title contender.
Then, after fighting way through the toughest of all possible paths to get to the 2022 NBA Finals, Boston was sent into fishing season on their own floor by the Golden State Warriors. Could the Celtics be on a collision course with the Warriors yet again after finding another gear to their offense?
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon thinks they might be.
Take a look at the clip embedded above to hear the former San Antonio Spurs assistant coach’s reasoning.
The Las Vegas Aces had their city turned all the way up.
For a city having its first ever championship parade, Las Vegas sure did show up and show out for the Aces after they returned home from the WNBA Finals against the Connecticut Sun.
The newly minted WNBA champions held their championship parade on the Vegas strip on Tuesday and it looked more like a party than anything else.
Champagne was popped. Shots were taken. A’ja Wilson was on 10. Finals MVP Chelsea Gray was also on 10. Kelsey Plum may have been on 20. The vibes were immaculate all around.
Not sure if these photos actually do the moment justice, but here are 15 incredible pictures from the Aces’ celebration.
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Becky Hammon did not have a traditional path to get to where she is today.
“My journey’s not by mistake,” Hammon said. “Every hard thing that I’ve gone thru has built something in me that I’ve needed down the road.”
Hammon, a six-time WNBA All-Star, had several years of experience as an assistant coach for the Spurs. During a game in which Gregg Popovich was ejected, she became the first female acting head coach in NBA history.
During her interviews to become a permanent head coach in the NBA, Hammon said that she was often told that she only had experience in San Antonio and had never been a head coach. It didn’t bother her, though. She just needed to rise above it.
“I’m used to people not picking me,” she added. “I just do me.”
So what did she do? She was named the WNBA’s Coach of the Year.
During her first year as a head coach in the WNBA, she led her team to win the Commissioner’s Cup, the No. 1 seed, and the WNBA championship. This was the first time the Aces won the title, and in the process, Hammon became the first former WNBA player to win a title as a head coach.
Hammond deserves all of the flowers that she is getting today. Popovich issued a statement supporting her accomplishments. Former and current players from San Antonio tweeted their congratulations. She even got some love from United States President Barack Obama.
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
For The Win staffer had a roundtable discussion about the proposed rule change to the NBA Draft:
“According to the reporter for The Athletic and Stadium, the NBA and players association are deep into talks on a new collective bargaining agreement that would, among other things, lower the draft eligibility age from 19 years old back to 18—effectively ending the one-and-done era of college basketball.
Our Slack channel did not handle this news well. Battle lines were drawn between those (Andy Nesbitt) who thought this meant the end of NCAA basketball as we know it and others who thought the impact wouldn’t feel as extreme as it sounds.”
Pop showed his support for Becky Hammon and the Aces in the WNBA Finals.
The Las Vegas Aces took care of business on Tuesday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena to capture a 2-0 lead over the Connecticut Sun in the 2022 WNBA Finals.
They did so in a dominant fashion and in front of a long list of well-known sports figures.
Kyle Lowry, Ja Morant, Quinn Cook, Buddy Hield and Ty Lue were all in attendance, just to name a few. But arguably the most notable guest of them all was Gregg Popovich.
Of course, Popovich and Aces head coach Becky Hammon share a long basketball history, which is likely chief among the reason main reasons why he was in attendance.
After retiring from playing in the WNBA, Hammon joined Coach Pop’s staff in San Antonio where she held a position on the coaching staff from 2014 to 2021.
Now, a win away from a championship in her first year as a head coach, it was so wholesome of Coach Pop to come in and show some support for Hammon and the WNBA as a whole.
Things are going well these days for the Las Vegas Aces. They’re just a win away from their first WNBA championship, the arena (Michelob ULTRA) is selling out these Finals games and the vibes around the team are just *chef’s kiss*.
Even a chef’s kiss might undersell how immaculate the vibes currently are. For a better understanding, do yourself a favor by hopping on Twitter and run a quick “Becky Hammon” search.
Better yet, I’ll save you some time.
Check out this priceless reaction of a pumped Hammon during Game 2 as she praises her Aces for battling in the paint on both ends.
I told you the vibes were immaculate, didn’t I? Apparently, nothing gets Hammon going quite like a battle in the paint.
Anyways, this team is tons of fun and I can only imagine the different clips and sound bites that we’ll get if they can finish the job in these WNBA Finals.
Becky Hammon might really have something special going on in Vegas
After all the waiting and all the controversy behind Becky Hammon’s hire as the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces, it was finally time to perform. The WNBA season opened on Friday and Hammon had her first game as a head coach.
Perform is exactly what she did. The Aces looked extremely impressive.
So impressive, in fact, that they made a little history along the way to their first win of the season for Hammon. They blew the Phoenix Mercury out 106-88. The 106 points the Aces put up were actually the most ever in a WNBA head coaching debut, per Across the Timeline.
Becky Hammon's Aces team put up 106 points in her regular season debut as WNBA head coach.
That's a new record for a WNBA coach in their first game.
Aces players were obviously thrilled to get Hammon her first win. They had to celebrate it the right way. So what did they do? Doused her with water bottles when she entered the locker room after the big win.
What an awesome moment for Hammon and the Aces. This was an incredibly impressive win against a team that went to the WNBA Finals last season. Obviously, they’re without Brittney Griner right now who we need to get home ASAP, but they’re still a pretty formidable squad.
For the Aces to dominate them like that with A’ja Wilson only taking 8 shots? Nah, man. The WNBA better watch out for these Aces this year.
Becky Hammon might have something special on her hands.
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