Toronto Raptors are considering an NBA first by appointing a female head coach following the sacking of Nick Nurse earlier this month.
Nurse led the Raptors to their first and only NBA title in 2019 after being promoted from assistant coach to head coach the previous year. But after three underwhelming seasons that culminated in an elimination game home defeat in the play-in tournament this season, the 55-year-old was dismissed.
According to ESPN, Raptors’ search for a new head coach is expected 'to be broad in scope'. And the franchise have been granted permission to speak to Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who led her team to the WNBA Championship in 2022 before she was voted the league’s coach of the year.
Hammon, who enjoyed an illustrious career as a player, has plenty of experience in men’s basketball after spending eight seasons as assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs. And she would be a trailblazer for females in the sport if she can land the head coach role with the Raptors.
Hammon has built an impressive reputation as a coach. And back in 2018, legendary Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich insisted an NBA team with “guts” would hire the 46-year-old.
“It's going to take somebody who has some guts, some imagination, and is not driven by old standards and old forms,” Popovich explained. “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.”
Raptors’ search for a new head coach looks set to be drawn from a wide pool that includes assistants currently coaching in the NBA as well as coaches in the college and WNBA, while out of work former NBA head coaches are also among the names that ESPN are reporting.
San Antonio's Mitch Johnson, Golden State's Kenny Atkinson, Miami's Chris Quinn, Milwaukee's Charles Lee, Phoenix's Kevin Young, Memphis' Darko Rajakovic and Sacramento's Jordi Fernandez. And they will also interview their own assistant coach Adrian Griffin.
“The decision to make a change like this is never arrived at easily or taken lightly, especially when it comes to a person who has been an integral part of this franchise’s most historic accomplishments, and who has been a steady leader through some of our team’s most challenging times,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said following the sacking of Nurse.
And he added that the departure was “an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put into place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship.”
