Aces Triumph in NBA’s Failure
Watching the Las Vegas Aces play the game of basketball in 2022 is a sight to behold. Since moving from an assistant next to the great Gregg Popovich, Becky Hammon has created a juggernaut of a WNBA team with a style the league simply cannot catch up with.
The Aces sit at the top of the Western Conference scoring on average the most points per game in the WNBA, and it is not even a contest. Hammon has worked in a fast-paced offense filled with ball movement, and creative playmakers making the decisions.
With players like the versatile A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and the elite shooting talent of Kelsey Plum, the Aces have all the tools necessary to become the team Hammon wants them to be. Despite all of the successes that Hammon has had so far this season, the topic of the NBA keeps coming up. Hammon left the NBA after an offseason where she was given multiple interviews but never received a job offer.
After not getting an NBA head coaching job back in 2021, Hammon remained humble, stating, "I think you can throw the female, male thing out the door. There are 30 jobs. They are incredibly hard to get. And when I say 30 jobs, not all 30 are available, right? So there's like maybe four or five that are available. And the amount of pressure and scrutiny that comes with each of those jobs, they're just really hard to get... So for me, you know that process, I think I get better every time I go through it and walk through that door."
C/O: STEVE MARCUS
Her nine total years next to one of arguably the greatest head coaches of this generation did not intrigue a team enough to pull the trigger on Hammon. With more and more head coaching positions at the end of the NBA season coming vacant and becoming filled, some are left to wonder, why didn't Hammon get a chance? Maybe if Hammon rode it out as an assistant for another year, teams would reconsider, but in the position society is at the moment, the odds of that are slim to none. Hammon said that the team would pick the best candidate for that specific team, but with a multitude of experience, there was no doubt she was left wondering what she lacked and what the others possessed.
She understands the logistics of what it takes to get an elite job like that, and while she wants to ignore the female and male conversation, the reality is, it is still front and center. Chauncey Billups had one year of experience as an assistant coach and the Blazers hired him as their head man. Many other hires like Willie Green to the Pelicans were well overdue, and accumulated more success may have thought. Even with that fact, all these NBA teams gave these specific candidates a chance except for Hammon who was more than qualified.
Before the season began, Hammon agreed to a record-high salary of $1 million annually, which is more than every WNBA player. Some individuals made their displeasures known about the contract, but the way Hammon has changed the Aces cannot be stressed enough. The fact that she does not have a men's job simply demonstrates the seemingly endless flaws of a league trying to break through barrier after barrier. From standing up to racism, gun violence, and the league, the players have continued to do the right thing, but some things are thrown under the rug continuously.
Hammon paid her dues as the second fiddle on a coaching staff, but for some inexplicable reason, the seven teams in 2021 all went in a different direction from a person who simply lives for the game of basketball.
The only problem is Hammon is a woman, and even in 2022, the world has yet to see a woman head a men's basketball or soccer team. The NBA had its opportunity, but it failed to capitalize on it. While Hammon might be back, the world still waits for this barrier that should have been broken a long time ago to be shattered.
Hammon's salary demonstrates how far the league still has to go in order to pay its players. An average NBA head coach makes around $4 million per season while an average NBA player's salary was reported to be around $7.5 million in 2020-2021. While the inequities in the salaries around the WNBA are evident, the focus has to be more on the lack of opportunities women are receiving in the NBA. There has only been a total of 15 female assistant coaches in the history of the league.
Six of them are currently on the sidelines for an NBA team today, and while these women are breaking the boundaries of what women can do, there is still so much work to be done. Jenny Boucek, a member of the Indiana Pacers coaching staff, is playing an essential role alongside Rick Carlisle. From working closely with players, and coming up with offensive and defensive gameplans, Boucek continues to be a role model for women around the world who aspire to break into a game that has been known to be designated for men. With Hammon now moving on after not even getting a chance, Boucek could be the next woman up to lead an NBA team on the sideline. Lisa Boyer broke the glass ceiling back in 2001 becoming the first female assistant coach in the NBA, since then, few have been given opportunities, and many decided to take their talents elsewhere.
The rise of women in sports is evident around the United States and the world. In the NFL, female assistant coaches are becoming more and more prominent. Major League Baseball is still breaking into the field when it comes to assistant coaches with Rachel Balkovec in Low-A and Alyssa Nakken with the San Francisco Giants. The engagement and the talent right now are at an all-time high in women's sports. Fans are interested, and the quality of all the players continues to evolve around the sports world. The growth and development are more than obvious for women in sports, but the amount of room there is to grow is astronomical. Today, everyone sees women coaching women. From the Women's Super League in England to the National Women's Soccer League in the United States, women are leading teams to some of the most successful seasons in their respective club's history.
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Former USWNT goalkeeper and NYU men's soccer coach Kim Wyant is the only woman in the United States currently coaching a men's sports team. She expressed her disappointment with the lack of females in leadership positions, stating, "Why aren’t there more women serving as head coaches of men’s college teams? It isn’t uncommon to see men coach women’s teams, but Wyant is the lone head coach of a men’s team at the collegiate level... I hope that leaders in clubs and universities are more open-minded to allowing women a chance at coaching positions for boys’ and men’s teams."
Not only in the men's game is their inequity in head coaching positions, but in the women's game as well. Only four coaches out of the 12 teams in the NWSL are female at the moment after the investigation into Amanda Cromwell was announced. There becomes a point where merit is thrown out the window, and the qualifications that a person possesses do not matter anymore. Receiving a head coaching position in professional sports is one of the most daunting things to be able to accomplish, and when teams say they are picking the best candidate for the job, few should believe them. Taking the easy way out, or picking the safe individual for the job is what franchises do in reality. They do not want to get hit with any sort of disapproval from the fans or even the players, so the choice of a man who has been around the game for quite some time looks appealing enough to put pen to paper.
Hammon will no doubt continue to prove all the teams wrong that did not choose her last season as the positions opened up. The Aces are right now the most well-rounded team in the WNBA, and with the talent, and the continued guidance of a mind like Hammon's a WNBA title could be on the horizon. Las Vegas is not just beating teams, it is obliterating solid teams that possess both star talent and experience. With the Blazers' regression last season, some can't help but wonder if Hammon could have saved the partnership of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Portland's future is up in the air as it has to watch one of its former candidates for the head coaching job find massive success with another organization. More than qualified, and seemingly unmatched intelligence of the game was not enough for Hammon to obtain a job in the NBA. Each year, progress continues to be made, and one day, a woman be head of an NBA team or even a professional soccer team, but for now, the world continues to wonder about the inequities of the world as Hammon builds the Aces into what could be one of the best teams the WNBA has ever seen.
C/O: Getty Images
