It’s time to bring Becky Hammon home.
It’s time to bring her back to the place where she began her professional career. It’s time to bring her back to the franchise that saw her grow from a little-known, undrafted point guard from Colorado State to a six-time WNBA All-Star. And it’s time that the Liberty, who fired Sandy Brondello after they lost in the first round of the playoffs, went after the best coach in the game.
And make no mistake, Hammon right now is the best in the game.
A win Friday night in Phoenix would give Hammon’s Aces a sweep of the Mercury in the WNBA Finals. It would also give Hammon her third title in the four years she has been running the Las Vegas team, having already won championships in 2022 and 2023.
Wait, you say? Doesn’t Hammon have the best scorer in the game in A’ja Wilson, who hit the game winner Wednesday night to with .3 seconds left to give Las Vegas a 90-88 win?
Well yes, she does. But Hammon also has the incredible late-game management skills that help her make the best use of Wilson and the rest of her players, which was on full display during the Aces’ final possession of Game 3 Wednesday.
Las Vegas took possession with the game tied and just over 17 seconds left after Alyssa Thomas missed a layup. Hammon initially did not call a timeout, but when it appeared that Jackie Young was going to have to drive through traffic to make a game-winning layup, Hammon stopped play with five seconds left.
The huddle was brief. Hammon knew she didn’t have to call a timeout or put in a fancy play. She simply gave the team very simple marching instructions.
“Get the ball to A’ja and get out of the way,” Hammon said.
The rest is history.
You can bet that among the million-plus viewers of Wednesday night’s game were Joe and Clara Tsai, the deep-pocket owners of the Liberty. And you can bet they are going to make a run at Hammon, despite the fact she still has a year left on her contract with Las Vegas.
The Liberty were built to be a superteam and even though they did win a title last year, there were some in the organization who believed that Brondello should have won it in 2023 and this year too. The Liberty did deal with a lot of injuries this season, but Brondello’s conservative use of the bench down the stretch of the regular season and her late-game coaching decisions were sometimes questionable. Most notable was her team’s failure to score out of timeouts twice in the final minute of their season-ending loss to Phoenix in Game 3.
“We need to nail this,” general manager Jonathan Kolb said after not renewing Brondello’s contract. “If we’re going to make a bold decision like this, our players deserve to get the best, and so we’ll take the time necessary.”
In other words, expect the Liberty to swing for the fences on this one, and what bigger swing could they take than trying to land Hammon, the highest-paid coach in the league with a salary of $1 million a year.
Of course, they would have to convince Las Vegas to let them buy out her contract, and they’d have to convince her to leave a team she obviously loves for a new challenge. The Liberty tried to hire Hammon in 2021 when she was an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs but were beaten out by the Aces, who signed her to what was a record-breaking deal for a WNBA coach.
That’s a lot of convincing to do, but money talks and the Tsais have plenty of it. The Nets, who are also owned by the Tsai family, reportedly pay coach Jordi Fernandez $2 million to coach that team. Wouldn’t it be an interesting statement about pay parity if they were to offer Hammon the same amount to coach their WNBA team?
The Liberty have a team that was built to win championships. Hammon has won three of them in the last four years and has deep ties to the franchise.
It’s time to make a run at her.
