Quotes from Becky Hammon

I think it's kind of silly, actually... I've been coached by men the majority of my career. It hasn't ever been an issue. They have never walked in on us. So I don't - I think it's a nonissue when you really reverse the conversation.

My whole childhood I grew up wanting to be a professional basketball player.

If you could play in the Olympics or sit on your couch and watch at home, what would you do? It was that simple. This is basketball; it's not war.

But really, I've worked my whole life to become a great basketball player. When I see that jersey go up, I'm sure I'm gonna have flashbacks to when I was 4 and 5 years old playing in my driveway because I loved it. I still love it to this day. It's been one of my first loves in life: basketball.

Playing basketball for me is like breathing.

For me, I think it's such a notable point to make that a leader had to believe, a leader had to see that potential.

If I went to play for Lithuania or Latvia, no one would have talked about it.

I was always with my dad and my brother. I know that if you can't keep up, you get left behind. So you learn to pull your weight. You learn to not be the one that's causing the problems, whether we're camping, where I'd better be the one to help put up the tent.

It's one thing to watch the NBA, but when you have to be there for every film session, every practice, it's a grind. It's a lot of hard work.

I had a fantastic career. I loved being a professional athlete.

I know who I am. When you get comfortable with yourself like that and you know you're doing the right thing, you can take a lot of crap.

You're getting to know these guys as people, and as players. You have to develop a rapport. They give me a lot of respect.

I just think there's a real art in listening. I need to listen.

I grew up in the woods; we were either on three-wheelers or four-wheelers or we were playing basketball.

I feel like I've had 20 years of experience at a very high level, if you throw in college, playing overseas, I've played in hundreds and hundreds of games.

People ask me all the time, will there ever be a woman player in the NBA? To be honest, no. There are differences. The guys are too big, too strong and that's just the way it is.

I was always smaller and slower than everybody else, so I had to figure out other ways to be successful. Some people can survive on their athleticism; I had to survive on my brain.

If you don't want a female coach, don't hire one!

Hope and encouragement, especially hope, is probably one of the greatest things you can give another person.

I... scout, I'm in all the film sessions, I'm in all the coaches meetings, I travel... I'm in on everything.

But it's been a learning experience; learning the NBA, learning the travel schedule and certain coaches, their styles, what they like to run out of timeouts, personnel, tendencies.

It's just really awesome to be rewarded for all your hard work; that people take notice of how I treated my teammates, how I was in my community.

The last reason I want to be hired is because of my gender. I want to be hired because you trust me, because of my potential, because you believe that I know basketball, and we go and we build from there.

But I think in the midst of working, you can't get too crazy serious.