Former WNBA star Becky Hammon grew from an undrafted role player to a star player to an NBA assistant coach before becoming arguably the WNBA’s best coach with Las Vegas
Becky Hammon is a three-time WNBA-winning head coach(Image: Getty Images)
The WNBA Draft is here, but one major figure throughout much of the league’s history never heard her name called on draft night.
Becky Hammon is entering her fifth season as coach of the Las Vegas Aces, having won the WNBA title in three of her first four seasons as coach. Hammon’s successful coaching career comes following a tremendously successful stint in the league as a player — despite going undrafted out of Colorado State — and as an assistant coach with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
A Rapid City, South Dakota native, Hammon was a first-team All-American at Colorado State in 1999. She was a three-time WAC Player of the Year and was confident about getting drafted.
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“My senior year, we were sold out, packed house, hosting the NCAA Tournament; and so all these magical things started happening. I thought, ‘Surely I’ll get drafted now because I’ve done all this stuff and my team’s winning. We’re doing all this great stuff.’” Hammon said on in an interview while with the Spurs.
Becky Hammon was a six-time WNBA All-STar(Image: Getty Images)
“And sure enough, draft day comes around; and I never hear my name called,” she added. “So that was obviously a low point for me. It was also a point where I got really determined, and said, ‘OK. I’ve been overlooked by so many big colleges. Being overlooked and underestimated is something that’s kinda always been a part of my career, I’m OK in that role; what I always want is just an opportunity.’
“And New York gave me that opportunity.”
Becky Hammon spent seven years as an assistant in San Antonio(Image: Getty Images)
Hammon latched on with the New York Liberty, first serving as Teresa Witherspoon’s backup point guard from 1999 to 2003 before inheriting the starting position. The team reached the WNBA in three of her first four seasons.
She went on to have a decorated career, earning six All-Star nods and four All-WNBA selections. Hammon left the Liberty in 2007 for the San Antonio Stars, who later relocated and became the Las Vegas Aces.
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Hammon tore her ACL in her last season as a player, but she used the opportunity to sit in on San Antonio Spurs practices. Head coach Greg Poppovich offered her a full-time assistant position a year later.
She was a finalist for the vacant Portland Trail Blazers job in 2021, losing out to Chauncey Billups. Hammon left San Antonio and took the head coaching job with Las Vegas that offseason.
Hammon will once again coach the A’Ja Wilson-led Aces in 2026, hoping to win a fourth WNBA title. The only year she lost out, Las Vegas was eliminated in the semifinals.