{"id":757446,"date":"2026-06-24T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757446\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:41:10","slug":"hammon-acknowledges-brunsons-greatness-but-wont-apologize-for-questioning-star-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757446\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammon acknowledges Brunson\u2019s greatness but won\u2019t apologize for questioning star | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon twice on Tuesday acknowledged what Jalen Brunson accomplished in leading the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/new-york-knicks\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Knicks<\/a> to the NBA championship was historic and her \u201copinion was wrong,\u201d but she offered no apology for her previous comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hammon spoke to reporters at the Aces shootaround earlier in the day and then before Las Vegas\u2019 home game against the New York Liberty. In the pregame news conference, Hammon opened by making a point to say she was wrong that the 6ft 2in point guard was too small to lead the Knicks to the title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Brunson was named <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/nba\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> finals MVP after guiding the Knicks to victory over the San Antonio Spurs. He scored 45 points in the title-clinching game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hammon made her original comments on ESPN in December 2023, saying Brunson wasn\u2019t a \u201c1A dude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">She was asked about her remarks at Aces shootaround.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cJalen, all he did was prove history wrong,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cHe proves he\u2019s an outlier, so you can put his name next to Steph Curry and Isiah Thomas. I thought he played brilliantly, especially down the stretch. I mean, he was that 1A dude. But apologize? I\u2019m never going to apologize for having an opinion. That\u2019s what ESPN pays me for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">This isn\u2019t the first time in recent weeks she defended her original comments. Hammon also was asked her opinion after Brunson was named Eastern Conference final MVP when the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-7\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Weekly for the 2026 WNBA season<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to WNBA 30<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">A limited run women\u2019s basketball newsletter dedicated to the league\u2019s historic 30th season. <\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wnba_newsletter_(35eacf7cad976602e57c2c59c926a2575e382de6)_(4).jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-7\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI think Jalen Brunson\u2019s a hell of a player, a hell of a player,\u201d Hammon said on 26 May. \u201cI\u2019m speaking historically on the NBA with what I said. I don\u2019t know why everybody\u2019s so stuck on that. I said it two years ago. I said what I said. If he proves me wrong, he proves me wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon twice on Tuesday acknowledged what Jalen Brunson accomplished in leading the New&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-757446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}