According to the Athletic Thursday evening, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon is closing in on a deal to become the new head coach of the WNBA Las Vegas Aces.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reported that the deal will be for five years and will be the most lucrative deal for a WNBA head coach.
One key note was Wojnarowski reported Hammon will finish the 2021-2022 season with San Antonio before moving to the WNBA.
Hammon is in her eighth season of being a Spurs assistant coach this season. In 2018, she was promoted to be one of Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich’s top three assistant coaches in the front of the bench.
Hammon also was the head coach of the Spurs Summer League team for three different summer leagues, and in 2015, the team won the Summer League Championship.
In the past few offseasons, Hammon has been interviewed for a few head coaching vacancies in the NBA.
Hammon spent the last few years of her playing career with the San Antonio Stars (before they relocated to Las Vegas) from 2007-2014, and then she retired after the 2014 season.
Hammon made history with the Spurs when she was hired as the first female assistant coach with an NBA team.
With Hammon accepting the job to coach the Aces after this season, this will give the Spurs time to figure out who will be added to the coaching staff for next season, since Hammon is one of Popovich’s top three assistant coaches in the front of the bench.
Popovich’s top three assistants are Hammon, Mitch Johnson, and Matt Neilsen. Chip Engelland and Darius Songaila are also assistant coaches, but it’s unknown at the moment if either of them will be promoted to the front of the bench or if the Spurs will hire someone else, or promote someone from the G-League Austin Spurs later this offseason.
During her career as a player in the WNBA, Hammon was a six-time All-Star and she was named to the All-WNBA first team twice and All-WNBA second team twice as well.
