“Her and her brother used to take off into the wild and ride four-wheelers, three-wheelers,” says Marty. ![]() The Hammons were an outdoorsy family they hunted, fished, and went camping. Her father Marty ran a fire-sprinkler company, and her mom Bev was a realtor. Hammon grew up in Rapid City, S.D., near the Black Hills mountain range. I don’t need the stamp of approval from the NBA.” ![]() She points out that the NBA’s 82-game grind, for example, is punishing for any parent of young children the WNBA’s 40-game schedule, which spans summer vacation, is much more family-friendly. “My happiness is most important,” she says. Hammon insists the latter isn’t necessarily the obvious call. Or she can embrace the role of historic figure, breaking a glass ceiling and becoming the first woman to coach a group of men in a major sports setting. She can play a key role in growing the popularity of the WNBA. In the immediate or near future, it would seem, Hammon may have to make a choice. In April, days before the start of WNBA training camps, the Toronto Raptors reached out to Hammon’s agent about their vacant head-coaching position. Meanwhile, Hammon remains on the NBA’s radar. The new season starts May 19, with the Aces returning as champions but also facing two investigations by the WNBA, one related to the salary cap and the other related to allegations of mistreatment by a pregnant player who was traded. Read More: The Most Influential People of 2023: Mikaela Shiffrin “She is overqualified,” says Aces guard Kelsey Plum, “to be an NBA coach.” (The Aces played in Utah as the Starzz from 1997 to 2002, then relocated to San Antonio as the Silver Stars, and later just the Stars, from 2003 to 2017 before moving to Las Vegas.) Hammon will enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in August, along with NBA greats Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, and her mentor Popovich. So Hammon made the jump to the WNBA last season, scrapped the Aces’ antiquated playbook to install a flowing pace-and-space style familiar in the NBA, and immediately won the first title in franchise history. Plus, momentum for women’s basketball is growing at the college level: this year’s women’s Final Four, capped by LSU’s Angel Reese talking trash to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in the championship game, created more buzz than the men’s event. Brittney Griner’s return to the court for the Phoenix Mercury, after her 10-month imprisonment in Russia, should draw more eyeballs. Viewership for April’s WNBA draft was the highest in 19 years, up 42% over last year’s total. The flurry of activity sparked debate about the costs and benefits of WNBA “superteams”-a conversation that has boosted fan engagement for the NBA for years and appears to be doing the same for the W. New York signed former WNBA MVP and two-time champion Breanna Stewart and point guard Courtney Vandersloot to free-agent deals and traded for 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones. The Aces inked Parker and forward Alysha Clark, a two-time WNBA champion (while also adding Tom Brady as a minority owner). Both the Aces and the New York Liberty made splashy off-season moves. Another WNBA team, the Seattle Storm, has broken ground on its own $64 million practice space. ![]() Hammon, who last season became the first rookie WNBA coach to take a team to the title, leads an organization pouring unprecedented investment into women’s basketball, at a moment when the sport feels especially ascendant. It’s just these little simple things that you think are so basic. “Be in a safe environment and have rebounders and whatnot. “At the end of the day, these players just want places they can go to just get shots up whenever they want,” says Hammon, 46, leaning against a railing.
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