San Antonio Spurs: Is NBA prepared for potential of a female head coach?
The basketball world loves an underdog story. As it relates to the San Antonio Spurs and Becky Hammon’s coaching future, is society ready for something this monumental?
Something about what Kyle Anderson contributed to the San Antonio Spurs in his rookie season caught the eye of newly-hired assistant coach Becky Hammon.
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Within a scoring hierarchy that included five different players scoring in double-figures, opportunities for the No. 30 selection to put the ball in the net weren’t plentiful.
And when they were, he seldom benefited from it: in 358 minutes of play, he shot just 34.8 percent from the field, hit on just three of his 11 long-range attempts and for a player who had been hailed as the “best passer in the 2014 Draft,” the 0.8 assists per game didn’t help potential arguments.
Foolish as it may be to pass judgment on little-used rookies, especially in San Antonio’s system, the desire to see him cut into that potential was there.
It was then that Hammon made the choice to experiment with Anderson — famously nicknamed “Slo Mo” for his unhurried, patient approach on the court — at power forward during the 2015 Summer League play, something Anderson had only done for 12 percent of his young career.
The result? Anderson was named as the 2015 Summer League Most Valuable Player, helped guide the Spurs to a league-best 7-1 record, a championship and perhaps most of all, it cemented Anderson a spot in the rotation for a 67-win Spurs team for the year to follow.
From a simplistic point of view, it was nothing more than a head coach recognizing a situation for a young player to thrive in.
For Hammon and the Spurs, it opened doors, and helped to silence some of sports’ more dogmatic viewpoints. At the time, the big news was that she had become the first-ever female head coach in the NBA’s Summer League.
Four years later, it’s worth wondering: has “if” been now replaced with “when,” in terms of expectations that the change is coming? And is the NBA and society as a whole mentally prepared for the potential of such a seismic shift in the basketball world?