Charles Barkley Believes Becky Hammon's Best Coaching Chance Is With San Antonio Spurs

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Becky Hammon has started to turn heads around the league by last summer being hired as the first female assistant head coach in the NBA and this year by leading the San Antonio Spurs to a Las Vegas Summer League tournament victory. She has claimed that becoming a pioneer is not her main objective, but that is what she will be if her career in professional basketball coaching continues its meteoric rise. Not many around the NBA would be caught off guard by Hammon reaching a head coaching position before this decade is over. Commissioner Adam Silver has even said he has “no doubt” a woman will be coaching in the league quite soon.

There is one other former player and current NBA analyst who believes there will be a female head coach in the pros eventually, and he also thinks it could’ve happened in the past. His name is Charles Barkley.

“At some point there is going to be a female coach in the NBA,” Barkley said on Mike and Mike. “More power to them. People had this debate about 20 some years ago about Pat Summitt coaching men. I think she would have done a fantastic job coaching men. And I think other than Bill Belichick and Gregg Popovich, the best coach in the world today is probably Geno Auriemma. And I think he would do great with men. I do, I think he would do fantastic with men. So I don’t think gender has a lot to do with it. It’s just about the players. The thing about the NBA man, it is just about players. Becky Hammon got a much better chance of winning with the Spurs than with the Sacramento Kings.”

I think Charles is making a great point here. Hammon will probably have the chance to attend job interviews for head coaching positions within the next year or two, but it would be more in her own self-interest to see how things go in the future with the Spurs. Popovich apparently said he’d coach out the length of his contract to LaMarcus Aldridge during free agency negotiations, and that means Pop will be there through 2019. Could Hammon become a head coach before that time? Absolutely, but Barkley brings up the intelligent notion that she’d be better off to wait and see if the Spurs are interested in her talents once Popovich retires.

Dave Daniels is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter: @AllDave_AllDay, like him on Facebook here or add him to your network on Google.

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