Cream Rises

G:TB's been on the Becky Hammon bandwagon since 2014, when she joined the coaching staff of the San Antonio Spurs. Where others might've seen some sort of tokenism, we believed that Greg Popovich didn't play that kind of game - the best leaders seek better leaders, tradition be damned.

We were right. But more importantly, Pop was right.

Hammon's Las Vegas Aces beat the Connecticut Sun yesterday, 78-71, to win the WNBA Finals, three games to one. Hammon became the first coach in WNBA history to win the title in her/his first season as the big whistle (hat tip to OBX Dave for that sobriquet). 

The Aces were 26-10 during the regular season, winning the Commissioner's Cup along the way. Hammon was named Coach of the Year. A'ja Wilson was WNBA Player of the Year, and Kelsey Plum joined Wilson on the first-team all-WNBA roster. And with all that talent, Chelsea Gray won the Finals MVP. The Aces are deep, and talented, and it must be noted, well-coached.

In that piece about Hammon joining the Spurs, we wrote, "The NBA is a global business worth billions of dollars. Very few other global enterprises succeed without diversity of thought and innovation in leadership. This is in many ways a very natural evolution. All of this assumes, it must be said, that Hammon can actually coach."

As noted above, Pop was, and is, right. Becky Hammon is a champion. And should she want it, she'll take the lead on an NBA bench sooner rather than later. And unless I'm missing the plot, she'll be great.