Gary Sheffield, Jr
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Former Spurs assistant Becky Hammon was the first Trailblazers interview and apparently she impressed. Unfortunately, Spurs’ less than “complimentary” review of Hammon led the Blazers in another direction. Just a few days later, the team decided to go with former NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups.
Did the Spurs do Hammon dirty? Here’s the full comment that was reported by Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer:
“Hammon impressed Portland officials and was generally liked amongst Blazers staffers. But when Portland reached out for intel from San Antonio figures, the background on Hammon was not nearly as complimentary pertaining to various aspects of day-to-day coaching responsibilities. That sentiment has been echoed by sources around the league. Blazers personnel then cast doubt that Hammon was the candidate to steer the ship through such delicate waters with Lillard.”
Breaking: Chauncey Billups has reached an agreement on a five-year deal to become the head coach of the Trail Blazers, sources tell @wojespn. pic.twitter.com/r9C6JzHrU5
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 28, 2021
This is why hiring women has become so difficult
Not only do you have to find Becky Hammon a quality assistant coach to interview her for the most important organizational role in basketball, but you also have to explain why you didn’t hire her. Now the Blazers, after simply taking a flier, have to defend themselves like they’re sexist.
Same goes for the San Antonio Spurs. Twitter is in rage that Hammon didn’t get the job, even though she received poor reviews from a company that champions women in sports. After all, they awarded Becky Hammon’s hard work with an assistant coaching role, and then suddenly it’s not enough.
No matter how good or bad a job she did in San Antonio, activists want raving reviews for all women. And like I promised, Blazers GM Neil Olshey was forced to make a statement:
“We obviously admire Becky. She did a great job. Making it as far as the owner in the process isn’t easy. She made it all the way to the ownership level, which is an endorsement, Olshey said during a press conference to introduce Billups as head coach.
The Trail Blazers will reportedly hold a press conference Tuesday to announce the signing of first-time head coach Chauncey Billups to a five-year deal https://t.co/fCH4xSFSI0
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 28, 2021
Here’s what happened:
Hammon has major flaws, just as most coaches do, and she wasn’t hired. It’s that simple.
Now anytime she doesn’t land a job, there will be a sea of bozos on the internet claiming she didn’t make it due to being a woman. It’s really got nothing to do with Becky Hammon, but more so to do with minority coaches in general. People would rather say they didn’t get the job because of the color of their skin, their gender or their sexual orientation than hear that they have a glaring flaw in their abilities.
Social media has become counterproductive to minorities by being…too pro minority. It’s too hostile. Hopefully, Hammon gets a job somewhere because of her ability to coach. If she doesn’t land a job because a past employer had a poor review, then she needs to make some adjustments. That’s on her.
Progress would be nothing but white women coaching NBA teams.
Good analysis of the situation Mr Sheffield. No one should be forced to hire someone just because of gender, race, sexual choice, color of their hair, how long their toenails are, getting pretty ridiculous here. We also do not need a public comment on why that was not the right candidate.
It’s the nba. Who cares?
Other than billions of people? No one.
Lmfao, billions????? I guess I’d you mean China
I do. But guess what? China’s money pays the bills as much as that bothers anyone.
Yeah and lucky for the nba there’s China. Because all time record low ratings show not many in the U.S. care.
It’s not luck, it was planned.
Imagine a 5’5 woman yelling at one of these guys with an attitude, telling them to hustle more & quit loafing…. Demarcus Cousins or Patrick Beverly (KYRIE IRVING NO LESS!!!) 😂 😂 😂 they aren’t going to put up with that. You need a man to be a leader of men.
call me bigoted or whatever name you want I don’t care. The operation is dead on arrival
Are you kidding? The tinier a woman is who is yelling at you, the more you listen.
Just like Scottie Pippen blaming his skin color for Jackson going with Kukoc for the last shot, it’s easier to blame a characteristic that you can’t change than a characteristic you can change.
The players can say whatever makes them feel good, but I want to see the first reaction to her grabbing a 6’9″ 250 lb guy by the jersey and yelling at him that he didn’t shift hard enough to help in the paint. They will laugh at her. It’s just reality. That doesn’t mean women don’t have a path to a role in men’s sports, it just means this ain’t it.
Exactly ^ 😂
Its simply not realistic. Many of these dudes don’t even respect the men they play for as it is…
More insulting snarky childish remarks to the VIPs from the author really quite amazing I don’t read his shit anymore just dropped in to see if he has matured a bit uhh no see ya
See ya James!
I don’t care care how many woke pills these guys swallow, they’ll never take a female seriously, nor should they, unless she jumps higher, is stronger, or has a better jump shot
James are you okay dude ? You sound really angry man. Nothing Gary said was (so called) “childish”. Relax