Spurs' Becky Hammon At The Heart Of Potential NBA Hiring Bias

Becky Hammon has long been rumor as a potential pioneer in the sport, much like Doris Burke making inroads as the first woman to provide commentary on regular National broadcasts. Incidentally it's hard to judge why teams have interviewed Hammon for coaching vacancies and passed up on the opportunity. Apart from her coaching responsibilities as the Spurs Assistant to Gregg Popovich on one of the best staffs in history, Hammon began her career as a decorated star in the WNBA. She also coached the San Antonio Spurs summer league squad to a title in 2015, so it's not as if she's being miscast by any stretch of the imagination.

In 2017, Becky interviewed for the Milwaukee Buck general manager position which eventually went to Jon Horst. She also saw her less celebrated comrade James Borrego get hired in a head coaching position from right under her nose. The jury is out whether or not NBA owners have tokenized her in attempted to create a semblance of an "inclusion policy." It does feel like we've been having this Becky Hammon is "next up" discussion for longer than many of these newly minted candidates have existed in NBA head offices. 

Unfortunately many Assistants sit back in their understudy chair for years before they receive acclaim. The question mark appears to be Becky Hammon's inclusion in talks every time a coach is fired or a vacancy is created. If Human Resource departments are going to leak this information with the intention of creating a superficial atmosphere of respectability, then they ought to stop, or revert to actual modes of transparency.

The NBA is still unquestionably a forerunner when it comes to hiring women, as far as the other major sporting leagues are concerned. Unfortunately, even a 24% markup is hardly enough considering the role women have carved in the workplace in other types of industry. Basketball minds such as Becky Hammon prove in some measure, that it would be in the best interest of social progress that NBA franchises not publish their hiring agenda, unless they are ready to put their money where their mouth is.

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