Spurs coach Gregg Popovich heard one whistle and then a second, and by then was ready to call it a night.
Stalking off the AT&T Center court after being ejected in the first half of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last December, Popovich paused long enough to address his longest-tenured bench assistant coach.
“You got ’em,” Popovich told Becky Hammon.
Those three words changed everything for Hammon, and also changed nothing at all.
With them, Hammon made history as the first female to serve as an acting head coach in an NBA game.
That did not alter the nature of her job, or her approach to it.
“I try not to look at the huge picture of it, because that can get overwhelming,” Hammon said at the time. “It’s my job to go in there and be focused for those guys and make sure I’m doing all the things that will help us win.”
Hammon has been a history-maker since August of 2014, when Popovich tabbed her as the first full-time female assistant in the NBA.
She has a chance to make more of it. This week, Hammon is set to interview for head coaching vacancies in Portland and Orlando.
It is not the first time the 43-year-old Hammon has been up for a head coaching position.
In 2018, she scored an interview in Milwaukee for a post that eventually went to another former Spurs assistant, Mike Budenholzer.
Where this summer’s coaching carousel finishes remains to be seen. There is no guarantee, for instance, that the 73-year-old Popovich returns to San Antonio.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, right, and assistant coach Becky Hammon, left, on the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns in San Antonio, Sunday, May 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press
Still, there is a feeling around the league that Hammon could be closer than ever from taking a pickax to another glass ceiling.
The job in Portland came open earlier this month, as the Trail Blazers opted not to bring back longtime coach Terry Stotts for a 10th season with the club.
The competition for the job will be fierce. Other viable candidates include Los Angeles Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups and former Phoenix, New York and Houston coach Mike D’Antoni.
Hammon is not the only current Spurs employee up for the job, with front-office executive Brent Barry reportedly on the Blazers’ short list as well.
Neither is Hammon the only woman on Portland’s radar. South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley — like Hammon a former WNBA All-Star — has also seen her name surface.
The position in Orlando became available with the departure of Steve Clifford after three seasons with the Magic.
Other names that have emerged for the opening in Orlando include former Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson, who is now an assistant with the Clippers.
Fellow Clippers assistant Ime Udoka — another expatriate Spurs staffer — and Milwaukee assistant Darvin Ham are also reportedly on Orlando’s radar.
It is no sure thing Hammon gets either job.
Teams hire all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. There will be scores of deserving candidates who are not awarded a head coaching position this summer.
What is clear: In seven years on the Spurs’ bench, Hammon has forged a reputation league-wide as a coach on the rise.
If some team does name her its head coach, it will be anything but a token hire.
Hammon commands respect in the Spurs’ locker room and huddle, a point that was driven home the night of Dec. 30.
After Popovich was tossed, Hammon took over and nearly guided the Spurs to a comeback victory. They eventually lost to the defending NBA champions 121-107, but kept playing under Hammon’s charge.
“It was just Becky doing Becky,” veteran forward Rudy Gay said after the game. “That’s the best part about her. She’s a coach. We don’t think of gender when we think of Becky.”
Another Spurs veteran concurred.
“Any player who knows the history of women’s basketball knows what she meant to the sport,” DeMar DeRozan said. “You don’t think twice about it. She’s one of us. When she speaks, we’re all ears.”
Whether Hammon’s time with the Spurs might propel her to the next step in her coaching career is a question to be answered in the days and weeks to come.
No matter what happens with the coaching searches in Portland and Orlando and possibly elsewhere, several in San Antonio will be rooting for Hammon to make history — again.
“The future is bright for her,” point guard Dejounte Murray said during the season. “I hope she sticks to it. One day it may happen, or it may not happen. But she is definitely on the right road.”
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN
