Becky Hammon should be the Phoenix Suns’ next head coach
When this season ends and Phoenix Suns GM Ryan McDonough needs to figure out who the next full time coach should be, he should look right at Becky Hammon.
On October 22, the Phoenix Suns fired Earl Watson and promoted Jay Triano to interim head coach. However, the team will pursue multiple options for their next full-time head coach this coming offseason.
My dark horse hire is Becky Hammon.
Earl Watson needed to go. That much anyone that has followed the Suns knew.
Jay Triano has the Suns off to a great start as the interim coach. He has experience and is proving why he should stay long-term. Also, the last time a Canadian was given keys to Phoenix (Steve Nash) it went pretty well.
But this summer when the heads of the Suns state sit down to discuss who should be the full-time head coach beginning in the summer of 2018, the first few calls the front office should make are to Nash and fellow Ring of Honor member, Dan Majerle. It’s likely neither will leave their current positions and expectedly so, but it is simply due diligence to reach out and express that they are welcome as the head’s of this team.
Phoenix Suns
Triano, Nash and Majerle would be great choices for head coach, yet if those three do not appear to be best suited for the position, whether McDonough decided through interviews that they none of them were the best choice or they each simply shot a job offer down, my dark horse is current San Antonio Spurs Assistant Coach Becky Hammon.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Becky Hammon is a female.
So are the CEOs of General Motors, Youtube, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Pepsi. Not to mention the SVP of Apple, the Queen of England, multiple Supreme Court Justices, state Attorney Generals, and several world leaders.
No one really knew of her as a player but she was great. Similarly, she isn’t really on the tip of many tongues as a candidate for an NBA head coaching position, but she can be great at that too.
Let’s start from the beginning of her journey and walk the path to now. One that could make for a movie entitled “Against All Odds.”
“My story, just in general, is a story of someone who was over looked, someone who was told they can’t, someone who was told ‘You’re too slow. You’re too short.’ I’ve heard every reason why I shouldn’t be successful. And yet, you just take that all in. I always say you should be very careful with the voices you listen to. And my closest voices have always told me, ‘you can’.”
She came from a little town in South Dakota but rose up to be SD Miss Basketball as a junior. Then a senior, SD Player of the Year.
Only Colorado State took a chance on letting her play college ball. She led them to a 33-3 record and a Sweet 16 berth while getting All-American and CO Sportswoman of the Year honors, setting many all-time records including in points, field goals made, free throws made, 3-pointers made and assists. This led to an induction into the Colorado State University Sports Hall of Fame and Colorado State retiring her uniform.
However, due mainly to her size and coming from a small school, she was undrafted in the WNBA. Again, her unwavering perseverance prevailed. She scrapped out a 16 season career with two teams, New York and San Antonio. The Liberty inducted her into the Ring of Honor and the Stars retired her jersey. Her stint in the WNBA included 7 All-Star appearances and she finished 7th All Time in scoring, 4th in assists and 2nd in 3 pointers made while being named to the WNBA’s Exclusive Top-15 Players of All-Time list.
In 2013, she tore her ACL. During rehab she attended San Antonio Spurs practices, coaches meetings and games while frequently being invited to express her opinions. This led to her eventual hiring in 2014 as the first full-time female assistant coach in the NBA where she has spent the last three seasons impressing Head Coach Gregg Popovich.
In 2015, she was announced as their Summer League Head Coach, becoming the first ever female to do so. That year she too became the first female to win the summer league title – defeating the Phoenix Suns. She sold a common vision to a very different group of players and got them to win together.
In 2016, she became the first woman to be part of an All-Star coaching staff aiding Popovich on the sidelines in the 2016 NBA All-Star Game.
On paper she appears to be the ultimate underdog, but she has proven everybody wrong every step of the way meeting perseverance with success. She has player development experience, which the Suns need, and those that have worked with her rave about her instincts and understanding of the game.
Gregg Popovich’s endorsement is the ultimate seal of approval in this league for a coach and he admires her and has plenty of good things to say about her.
“She’s a natural. She talks the game. She understands the game. She’s got that same sort of Avery Johnson, Mike Budenholzer type thing. When you’ve been around it, you know who can coach and who can’t. Becky is one of those people [who can]. She’s a Steve Kerr. She’s a Doc Rivers.”
She is a winner. She won with the Colorado Chill. She won in CSKA. She took the Stars to their first ever Western Conference Championship. She won as an NBA Summer League coach.
She also commands the respect of the players. The Spurs players treat her like family.
If Becky Hammon were male, she’d likely already be an NBA Head Coach. She deserves to be one now not because it’d make history but because she absolutely deserves a chance. Look at how she’s taken every opportunity given to her so far and what she’s done with it. If she does it somewhere else, the Suns will regret not choosing her.
The Suns need to take advantage of everyone else’s hesitation and pull the trigger. This is the right team and by every measure – experience, diligence, demeanor – Hammon is a perfect fit for this moment, this challenge, this role.
She was asked about being a head coach in this league.
“All I want to do right now is try and train to be the best coach possible. I can’t open doors that aren’t open. But if a door opens, I would be happy to walk through.”
She is the best coach possible for this situation. The Phoenix Suns should let her walk through the doors. Accept her. Not because she is a woman but because she is the right person for the job.