Racspur1
04-28-2023, 08:00 PM
https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/opinion/2023/04/28/the-raptors-should-hire-becky-hammon-shes-the-best-coach-for-the-job.html
You’re an NBA team president with an opening for a head coach and a resumé with these qualifications lands on your desk.
An assistant coach in the NBA for almost a decade that was spent working for one of the greatest and most accomplished coaches in the history of the sport.
A coach who has worked with teams that have won NBA championships and teams laden with rookies and young players trying to figure out the game.
A coach who has slogged it out in every imaginable summer develop program, from working one-on-one with individual players to coaching Summer League teams to championships.
A coach who in the first go-round as a head coach led a team to a championship and was named the league’s coach of the year.
A coach who was one of the greatest players of their generation, a legitimate Hall of Famer who had individual and team success around the world.
With all that, the question isn’t “Why don’t the Raptors hire Becky Hammon to replace Nick Nurse?” but rather “Why haven’t they?”
Reports surfaced Thursday night that the Raptors had sought permission from the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces to interview Hammon for the vacancy Toronto created when it jettisoned Nurse a week ago.
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It was hardly surprising. Hammon, who spent eight years as an assistant to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, has been linked to a handful of NBA jobs over the last four or five years, so including her in the process just seems logical. But just look at that coaching history. It’s unblemished, it’s thorough and it’s undeniable.
She can coach, as Hall of Famer Pau Gasol said in an essay for The Players Tribune in 2018: “I’ve played with some of the best players of this generation … and I’ve played under two of the sharpest minds in the history of sports, in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. And I’m telling you: Becky Hammon can coach. I’m not saying she can coach pretty well. I’m not saying she can coach enough to get by. I’m not saying she can coach almost at the level of the NBA’s male coaches. I’m saying: Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”
Someone new. Someone with a history of winning. Someone with first-class bona fides. Someone with the respect of everyone they’ve come in contact with.
Isn’t that what the Raptors want and need? Obviously.
Yes, the historic nature of hiring the first female head coach in NBA history is significant and would be a bold step by Masai Ujiri and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. But in some ways, shouldn’t we be beyond that? Shouldn’t this be about the best candidate regardless? The initial frenzy over the 46-year-old Hammon being a woman would quickly get tiresome and her coaching chops would be all that matters, as it should in any case.
And blowback from players? Who cares?
My history with players is that they would take a coach from Mars if it helped them win. Male, female, it doesn’t matter to the true professionals, and if there’s a player who has an issue and can’t handle it? Get rid of the player. It’s not like there won’t be someone willing to take a job and direction from someone whose history stands apart from so many others.
Now, there is every chance Hammon may like where she’s at quite well enough. She’s been through the interview process before and may have decided — for now — that the NBA can wait. That continuing to do what she’s done for the WNBA is as important as, or more important than, elevating the profile of female coaches in the male version of the game.
And if that’s the case, best of luck to her and congratulations to the Aces for keeping a top-notch coach. It’s unimaginable that she’d want to always be a candidate and never get a job. At some level that’s got to feel like tokenism, and shame on team presidents who act that way.
You’re an NBA team president with an opening for a head coach and a resumé with these qualifications lands on your desk.
An assistant coach in the NBA for almost a decade that was spent working for one of the greatest and most accomplished coaches in the history of the sport.
A coach who has worked with teams that have won NBA championships and teams laden with rookies and young players trying to figure out the game.
A coach who has slogged it out in every imaginable summer develop program, from working one-on-one with individual players to coaching Summer League teams to championships.
A coach who in the first go-round as a head coach led a team to a championship and was named the league’s coach of the year.
A coach who was one of the greatest players of their generation, a legitimate Hall of Famer who had individual and team success around the world.
With all that, the question isn’t “Why don’t the Raptors hire Becky Hammon to replace Nick Nurse?” but rather “Why haven’t they?”
Reports surfaced Thursday night that the Raptors had sought permission from the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces to interview Hammon for the vacancy Toronto created when it jettisoned Nurse a week ago.
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It was hardly surprising. Hammon, who spent eight years as an assistant to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, has been linked to a handful of NBA jobs over the last four or five years, so including her in the process just seems logical. But just look at that coaching history. It’s unblemished, it’s thorough and it’s undeniable.
She can coach, as Hall of Famer Pau Gasol said in an essay for The Players Tribune in 2018: “I’ve played with some of the best players of this generation … and I’ve played under two of the sharpest minds in the history of sports, in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. And I’m telling you: Becky Hammon can coach. I’m not saying she can coach pretty well. I’m not saying she can coach enough to get by. I’m not saying she can coach almost at the level of the NBA’s male coaches. I’m saying: Becky Hammon can coach NBA basketball. Period.”
Someone new. Someone with a history of winning. Someone with first-class bona fides. Someone with the respect of everyone they’ve come in contact with.
Isn’t that what the Raptors want and need? Obviously.
Yes, the historic nature of hiring the first female head coach in NBA history is significant and would be a bold step by Masai Ujiri and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. But in some ways, shouldn’t we be beyond that? Shouldn’t this be about the best candidate regardless? The initial frenzy over the 46-year-old Hammon being a woman would quickly get tiresome and her coaching chops would be all that matters, as it should in any case.
And blowback from players? Who cares?
My history with players is that they would take a coach from Mars if it helped them win. Male, female, it doesn’t matter to the true professionals, and if there’s a player who has an issue and can’t handle it? Get rid of the player. It’s not like there won’t be someone willing to take a job and direction from someone whose history stands apart from so many others.
Now, there is every chance Hammon may like where she’s at quite well enough. She’s been through the interview process before and may have decided — for now — that the NBA can wait. That continuing to do what she’s done for the WNBA is as important as, or more important than, elevating the profile of female coaches in the male version of the game.
And if that’s the case, best of luck to her and congratulations to the Aces for keeping a top-notch coach. It’s unimaginable that she’d want to always be a candidate and never get a job. At some level that’s got to feel like tokenism, and shame on team presidents who act that way.