{"id":206387,"date":"2025-10-12T01:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T01:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/206387\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T01:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T01:23:09","slug":"stephen-a-smith-backs-becky-hammon-for-nba-job-after-wnba-title-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/206387\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith backs Becky Hammon for NBA job after WNBA title triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Becky Hammon led the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/las-vegas-aces\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Las Vegas Aces;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Las Vegas Aces<\/a> to their third championship on Friday night, as they swept aside the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/phoenix-mercury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Phoenix Mercury;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Phoenix Mercury<\/a> 97-86 to win Game 4 win of the 2025 WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Stephen A. Smith believes that Hammon deserves an opportunity to coach an NBA team as head coach.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Although she had a previous coaching stint in the NBA as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs (2014 to 2021), Smith believes now is the time for her to assume a head coach role and become the first woman to do so.<\/p>\n<p>As congratulatory messages poured in across the basketball world, including <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/obama-hails-aja-wilson-aces-185413395.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:one from former President Barack Obama;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one from former President Barack Obama<\/a>, Smith reacted to the title win on his show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m here to tell you something right now, Becky Hammon, as head coach for the Las Vegas Aces, I\u2019ve said this on many occasions and I\u2019ll say it again, she deserves to coach in the NBA,\u201d Smith said on The Stephen A. Smith Show after the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a man can coach in the WNBA\u2026 If I owned an NBA team, I would not mind giving her a chance as the head coach of my franchise because that woman knows what she\u2019s doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/becky-hammon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Becky Hammon;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Becky Hammon<\/a>\u2018s basketball knowledge both as a player and now as a coach is undeniable.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>But while she will have no shortage of suitors should she decide to try the NBA again, it\u2019s likely the Aces head coach is content in the WNBA and won\u2019t be moving between leagues any time soon.<\/p>\n<p>Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Becky Hammon led the Las Vegas Aces to their third championship on Friday night, as they swept aside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[100907,8133,49,48,25358,3460,459,3461,2696,82,35518,630],"class_list":["post-206387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-assistant-coach","tag-becky-hammon","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-head-coach","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-nba","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}