Becky Hammon Deserves to Be NBA Head Coach, Byron Scott Says

Former NBA head coach Byron Scott believes San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon deserves a chance to become the league's first female head coach.

On Saturday, TMZ Sports passed along the comments from Scott, who won three NBA titles as a player and coached four different teams.

"Why not? I mean, she deserves a shot at it," he said. "It shouldn't matter about gender, so we'll see. I think she would be a good coach."

Hammon spent 16 seasons in the WNBA with the New York Liberty and San Antonio Stars before she retired in 2014. She also played for several teams overseas during a career that included six WNBA All-Star selections.

The 40-year-old South Dakota native has often been mentioned as a possible head coaching candidate since she joined the Spurs staff after her retirement, especially after she led the organization's Las Vegas Summer League squad to a championship in 2015.

In October, she served as acting head coach for the first half of a preseason victory over the Denver Nuggets while Gregg Popovich watched from the team box.

"It's an amazing opportunity for me," Hammon said, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com. "But we're a teaching program, and that comes directly from [Popovich]. So for him to give us this opportunity and the guys here a different voice, that's what his [coaching] tree is kind of all about. It's mentoring and bringing people along."

The Milwaukee Bucks contacted Hammon about their general manager opening last offseason, per Adrian Wojnarowski, then of The Vertical.