Today, we are all Becky.
The Becky Hammon hiring from the eyes of someone who wants the WNBA to survive, thrive, and live its best life.
This edition is a tad different than the first one. But hey, there are no rules because:
1) this is mine to abandon and forget the password to and
2) because I’ve literally published one newsletter whilst the others sit in my drafts – this is something I’m working on in 2022 thank you very much for the concern.
In this week/day/month’s edition of No Barrier To Entry, we are gonna talk about Becky Hammon and how she just became the highest paid WNBA coach in the league’s history. She is signing a 5-year deal to coach A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Liz Cambage, Angel McCoughtry, Chelsea Gray, and so many more as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces.
Somewhere someone just shouted “TALK ABOUT IT” in my general direction.
Let’s jump in.
Who is Becky Hammon?
The back of Becky’s trading card reads as such:
Undrafted out of Colorado State* ⛹🏼♀️
*Fun Fact* Back in 1999, many of the American Basketball League’s former players came into the WNBA, which influenced how many college players were picked in that draft 🌈 The More You Know 🌈
Six-time All-Star guard 🔥
Played 16 seasons in the WNBA (1999-2014) 🏀
Spent her career as a member of the New York Liberty 🗽 and the San Antonio Stars ⭐️
Named the assist leader in 2007 🏅
Becky is no stranger to anniversary teams. She was named to the 15th, 20th and most recently the 25th anniversary team 🏆
Spent 8 seasons as the assistant for the San Antonio Spurs under none other than Gregg Popovich 📋
The only former San Antonio WNBA player to have her jersey retired by the Spurs Organization 🎉
Why this moment matters
If you read the previous edition of No Barrier to Entry you know all too well why women’s sports need more ~ gestures around ~ everything. But specifically in this case, this hiring is HUGE for the WNBA as a league and for women everywhere.
This hire is exactly what the WNBA needed to continue its ascension into the mainstream. And it is exceptionally fitting that Becky was the one to do it. If you remember, not that long ago, Becky interviewed for head coaching jobs in the NBA – that’s the men’s league equivalent of the WNBA, maybe you’ve heard of it?
Since 2018, she interviewed for head coaching jobs with the Portland Trail Blazers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Indiana Pacers.
With Becky coming back to the league where it all started to sign a mega deal like she did is extremely telling of what the WNBA is capable of. Her signing is a message to everyone that the WNBA is the real deal. A very low-level analogy would be if this was the late 2000s and a talented engineer left Google to sign with a mid-sized start-up or when actors first started signing exclusive Netflix deals. Remember when Adam Sandler signed his life away to give us all his content only on Netflix? Same idea but significantly cooler.
Becky is leading the way for more medium and big names to:
1) see the WNBA as a legitimate league
2) invest in the WNBA
3) work in the WNBA or
4) become a fan of the WNBA if they aren’t already
She broke barriers in the NBA and left a sea of fans in San Antonio. I think we all remember when she stepped in and coached after Popovich got ejected. I’d be hard pressed to think those Spurs fans aren’t going to follow her to the Aces or to the league in general. Just think of all the new fans the WNBA is gonna acquire because of this signing.
Oh and did I mention she’s also adding General Manager to her title? 💥
Breaking barriers
If Hammon is successful with the Aces and wins a championship, let’s be real here she probably will. Have you seen the team? They are stacked. The Aces had the second best record this past season at 24-8 and fell to the Phoenix Mercury in the semifinals.
Some of the talk online right now is that after all is said and done and she gets her WNBA ‘ship she will just go back to the NBA (and she very well could) and to that I say – what if she doesn’t?
Did you like this issue? :)