Former Colorado State star Becky Hammon was hired as an assistant to coach Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, the team announced Tuesday.
Hammon, 37, is playing with the San Antonio Stars in the WNBA. She announced July 23 that she will retire at the end of the season.
“They’ve been observing me obviously for a while as a basketball player and as a person,” said Hammon, who assisted the Spurs during an injury rehabilitation period last season. “Pop said, ‘I’m hiring you because you’re a good fit here and you just happen to be a woman.’ I just think that sums this up great.”
She will be the second woman to coach in the NBA. Lisa Boyer, associate head women’s basketball coach at South Carolina, was an unpaid assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2001-02 season.
“In some ways it is trailblazing, but there have been so many other women doing great things and I’m just following in their path,” Hammon said.
The six-time WNBA all-star was named one of the league’s all-time top-15 players in 2011. She ranks seventh in career points (5,809), fourth in assists (1,687), second in 3-pointers made (824) and sixth in games played (445) over 16 years with the Stars and New York Liberty.
She suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in July 2013, something she called a “blessing in disguise” because it gave her a chance to work with the Spurs coaching staff during that rehab.
“It’s my body telling me that it’s time,” she said. “This opportunity happens to coincide, so it’s a pretty magical thing that I’m walking out of a playing career into a coaching opportunity.”
In a statement released Tuesday, Popovich said: “I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff. Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs.”
Hammon played at CSU from 1995-99, scoring more points in her career than any Rams player, with 2,740. She was a two-time All-American and three-time Western Athletic Conference player of the year. She also won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award for the best player in the nation under the height of 5-foot-8 in 1999.
Joe Nguyen: jnguyen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joenguyen