Aces coach shuts down sexist assumptions about NBA and WNBA coaches

If there is one thing Becky Hammon is extraordinarily well-versed in, it’s basketball. Between playing in the WNBA and coaching in the NBA and the W, Hammon has nearly 30 years of experience in the sport, and she’s learned plenty.

That knowledge was on full display in an interview with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston for the pair’s “Post Moves” podcast on November 12. Hammon, who was an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs from August 2014 until she took over as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces in 2022, broke down, dissected, and trashed many of the sexist beliefs and stereotypes surrounding the idea of women coaching in the NBA.

The trio also looked at coaching trends in general, and broke down what they mean for the league going forward. Here are a few key takeaways:

WNBA teams are hiring coaches with NBA experience

Parker pointed out that Hammon was at the forefront of a trend that certainly seems to be continuing: WNBA teams are making it clear they’re interested in hiring coaches with NBA experience. Nate Tibbets joined the Mercury by way of the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he was an assistant coach, a role he also performed for the Portland Trail Blazers as well as the Orlando Magic.

Tibbets isn’t the only coach to have traveled the NBA to WNBA pipeline of late. Natalie Nakase, who was named the first head coach of the Golden State Valkyries last year, previously worked as an assistant coach under Hammon for the Aces, but prior to that worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers. The Portland Fire’s new coach Alex Sarama also has an NBA connection: he was an assistant coach for the Cavaliers and worked for Portland’s G-League team, the Rip City Remix.

Most NBA coaches didn’t play in the league

Hammon addressed one complaint that is often used to justify not hiring more women as coaches in the NBA: that they don’t have experience playing in the league. “It’s like, well, how many coaches are actually have played in the NBA that are that are coaching now?” she said. “Not that many. There are some, obviously, and some very successful ones.”

She continued: “But just valuing that experience, I think has to go through the roof. The work and the detail that a W player puts in is the same as an NBA. Your guys’ workouts and how you work and how you go about your professionalism and how you attack a scouting report, how you attack an off-season workout, you know, it’s the same.”

Locker rooms aren’t a factor

She also trashed another “gotcha” moment that people who don’t want to see women coaching in the NBA often trot out: the age-old locker room question.

Parker brought the topic of the locker room up. “I remember talking to you before you went down to Orlando Magic, all of that, and some of the conversations would be like, well, what about the locker room?” she said. “But those same questions aren’t then asked to male head coaches — because male head coaches, it’s a thing in the WNBA. It’s a thing in college. Nobody ever questions like locker room etiquette, or [asks] ‘What are you going to do when you walk in after a game?’ Like, nobody says that.”

Hammon agreed, and also admitted that she never enters a locker room, period.

“By the way, I don’t go in the Aces’ locker room. It has nothing to do with gender,” she said. “Like, the locker room, whether it’s an NBA locker room, a college locker room, male, female, like it’s a very private place. And it’s a very, I don’t know, it’s a sanctuary, if you will.”