when Gregg Popovich walked painfully through the tunnel of the AT&T Center after being sent off on Wednesday, Becky Hammon replaced her to become the first woman to act as head coach in a regular season NBA game.
“Not on the way to the locker room,” Popovich told reporters in a video conference before the San Antonio Spurs faced the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. “For the rest, he was emotionally engaged.”
As Popovich’s anger subsided, recognition of Hammon’s historic feat began to spread throughout the country. And the man who added her to his team seven seasons ago wondered why anyone was surprised.
“It’s been a business as usual from the beginning. We didn’t hire Becky to make history,” Popovich said. “She earned it. She’s skilled. She’s wonderful at what she does. I wanted her on my staff for the job she does. And it turns out she’s a woman, which should basically be irrelevant, but it’s not in our “As we have seen, it has been very difficult for women to get certain jobs. For us it was as always.”
Popovich, five-time champion, three-time Coach of the Year and member of the Hall of FameHe said Hammon “knows more about the Lakers than I do” and was tasked with looking for defending champions in the face of the game.
And Popovich, 71, insisted there are many other women like Hammon, limited by social stereotypes but not by aptitudes.
“Women do the same job as well and better than men. That’s a fact. There’s 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 problem for me, because I know her. And I know her skills, and I know her value and I know her future is very, very bright. I understand the attention that she got it, but in all honesty, I assumed most people already knew she was qualified to be the head coach of the NBA. “
Hammon, 43, went six times All-Star a la WNBA in his 16 seasons with the New York Liberty i San Antonio Silver Stars. She was the first woman hired full-time for an NBA coaching staff in 2014. Last season, there were 11 women in the NBA coaching staff in the entire league.
“There are many, many, many skilled women who are being held back,” Popovich said. “And it’s just the nature of the world. It’s slowly changing, but the sooner, the better.”