Fresh off a WNBA championship, Las Vegas Aces Head Coach Becky Hammon is still processing the whirlwind of a season with her team.
"So much has happened. For me, since December when I took this job, it's just been go, go, go, go. It's weird to not have film to look at right now or not a meeting I have to be doing," Hammon said on Raiders.com's Upon Further Review.
The first-year coach went through every emotion when she heard the final buzzer sound and hoisted the championship trophy after the Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun, 78-71, in a hard-fought Game 4 matchup.
"It's really hard to articulate those moments," she said. "It's exhilaration, exhaustion, relief, happiness – it's like every range that the human emotion could afford," she said. "For me, I was just so thrilled for our team. The ladies worked really hard and it was just a really special season and it was only appropriate that it ended in a championship."
A former player herself, Hammon's resume and success in the WNBA is long. Originally undrafted, she played in the league from 1999-2014 with the New York Liberty and San Antonio Stars, becoming a six-time All-Star in that span, a two-time All-WNBA First Team and had her No. 25 jersey retired by the Stars (now the Las Vegas Aces).
After eight years as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs, she came to Las Vegas and back to coach her former team thanks to the persuasiveness of Aces President Nikki Fargas and Raiders/Aces Owner Mark Davis. In her first year as head coach, she's now added three new bullet points to her resume: Commissioner's Cup champion, WNBA champion and Coach of the Year.
"I was just so impressed with what they were building," Hammon said of her decision to join the Aces. "They had a vision, they had a plan and there was security behind that. ... To have the backing of your owner, your president, that kind of support, it makes you feel good stepping into that situation.
"Obviously, change is never easy for anyone but I felt really good about coming here because of the passion that Mark Davis has for women's basketball and women's sports. ... A lot of teams talk about family culture and stuff, but Mark Davis believes it to his core. It's something that he invests in. You can just see it with all the ways he's trying to loop alumni back in – whether it's from the Raiders or the Aces or the Stars, whoever."
Listen to the full interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more streaming platforms.
