LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon is among the finalists elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2023, according to ESPN.
She joins Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich, and Dwyane Wade in this year’s class. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the lineup for the Hall of Fame class in a tweet early Tuesday night.
A formal announcement is expected Saturday at the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
Hammon, fresh off leading the Aces to the WNBA Championship last summer, has broken barriers in the coaching ranks after a 16-year career with the New York Liberty and the San Antonio Silver Stars. The franchise in San Antonio moved to Las Vegas in 2018.
Hammon became the first woman to act as head coach during an NBA regular-season game in December 2020 when Popovich was ejected from a San Antonio Spurs-Los Angeles Lakers game. She was on Popovich’s staff for eight years in San Antonio.
Her career averages as a pro — when she earned the nickname “Big Shot Becky” — were 15.4 points per game, 5.0 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and a .388 career 3-point shooting average. She led the league in assists in 2007 and had the highest free throw percentage in the league six times. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star.
Before turning pro, Hammon was a three-time All-America at Colorado State University, where she led the Rams to a 33-3 record in 1998-99, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.
She became just the second female assistant coach in the NBA in 2014, and that number has now grown to 15 women. In the WNBA, she became the first rookie head coach to win the championship.
This year’s class has extensive ties to the San Antonio Spurs with Popovich, Hammon, Parker and Gasol, who played three seasons for the Spurs near the end of his career.