When Spurs coach Gregg Popovich walked through the AT&T Center tunnel after being kicked out on Wednesday, the magnitude of the moment – Becky Hammon replacing him to become the first woman to coach at an NBA game of the season regular – not immediately established.
“Not on the way to the locker room,” Popovich told reporters on a video conference before San Antonio introduced the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. “I was committed to other things, emotionally.”
As Popovich’s anger subsided, recognition for Hammon’s historic achievement began to spread across the country. And the man who included her on his team seven seasons ago wondered why anyone was surprised.
“It’s been business as usual since the beginning. We didn’t hire Becky to make history,” said Popovich. “She deserved it. She is qualified. She is wonderful at what she does. I wanted her on my team because of the work she does. And she becomes a woman, which basically should be irrelevant, but it is not in our world. , as we have seen, it has been very difficult for women to obtain certain positions. For us, it was business as usual. “
Popovich, five-time champion, three times coach of the year and infallible Hall of Fame, said that Hammon “knows more about the Lakers than I do” and was tasked with watching the title champions enter the game.
And Popovich, 71, was adamant about the existence of many other women like Hammon, limited by social stereotypes, but not by aptitude.
“Women do the same job as well and better than men. That is a fact. There is no reason why someone like Becky and other women cannot be coaches in the NBA,” he said. “On a larger scale, that’s why it wasn’t a big deal 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 she got, but in all honesty, I assumed that most people already knew that she was qualified to be the head coach of the NBA. “
Hammon, 43, has been a six-time All-Star on the WNBA in his 16 seasons with the New York Liberty and 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 on the NBA coaching staff across the league.
“There are many, many qualified women being retained,” said Popovich. “And it’s just the nature of the world. It’s changing slowly, but the sooner the better.”