Spurs Rumors: Becky Hammon to interview for Bucks HC job

San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon will become the latest to interview for an outside job, according to a report from ESPN.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks will interview San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon for their vacant head-coaching position. Fellow Spurs staffer Ettore Messina was linked to the Milwaukee job earlier Friday, also via Wojnarowski.

Hammon joined the Spurs in 2014, as the NBA’s first full-time, female assistant coach. She also became the Summer League’s first female head coach in 2017, as Gregg Popovich did not handle these duties (head coaches rarely take charge of Summer League games).

The Milwaukee Bucks plan to interview San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon for the franchise’s head coaching job, league sources tell ESPN. Hammon is the NBA’s first female assistant coach — and now will be the first to interview to be a head coach.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 5, 2018

It’s a historic scenario for Hammon, who will be the first female to interview for a head-coaching job in the NBA. The same goes for the MLB, NFL, NHL, the other major professional sports leagues in the United States.

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If Hammon is hired, obviously given the above milestone, she would become the first female head coach in any of the aforementioned major pro sports leagues. Gregg Popovich told The New Yorker in April that he believes she’s ready to take over an NBA team’s bench, saying it will “take somebody who has some guts, some imagination…”

“It’s going to take somebody who has some guts, some imagination, and is not driven by old standards and old forms.” Popovich said. “If somebody is smart, it’s actually a pretty good marketing deal — but it’s not about that. It’s got to be that she’s competent, that she’s ready.”

Hammon is hardly the first Spurs assistant to interview for a job this offseason. Aside from the Milwaukee job, Ettore Messina spoke with the Charlotte Hornets, who also sat down with James Borrego and Ime Udoka. Borrego and Udoka were linked to other jobs, as well, all of which were broken down.

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It’s an intriguing development in the NBA, with the Bucks and Hammon set to make history. They can go one step further if the latter lands the job and becomes the first female to lead a coaching staff. Let’s see how this unfolds.