As a 5-foot-6 point guard, decorated WNBA veteran Becky Hammon has never had the experience of shattering a backboard with a dunk. Shes busting through the glass ceiling instead. The San Antonio Spurs hired Hammon as an assistant coach on Tuesday, making her the first full-time, paid female assistant on an NBA coaching staff. When Hammon retires from her 16-year WNBA career at the end of the San Antonio Stars season, she will immediately move to the staff of the defending NBA champions, working with the revered Gregg Popovich on scouting, game-planning and the day-to-day grind of practice like no woman has ever done before. "Nothing in my life has really ever been easy. Ive always been someone who did it uphill," Hammon said. "Im up for challenges. Im up for being outside the box, making tough decisions and challenges. ... And Im a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. Throw those all in there and this was the perfect challenge and opportunity." That makes her fit right in with the Spurs, an organization with a reputation for bold decisions. Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have long been at the forefront of the leagues international influx and earlier this summer hired European coaching legend Ettore Messina as an assistant. During the 2001-02 season, Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas brought Lisa Boyer into the teams practices and some games. Boyer, now an assistant at South Carolina, was not paid by the Cavaliers and did not travel with the team, but did work with the players and coaches that season. "I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff," Popovich said in a statement released by the team. "Having observed her working with our team this past season, Im confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs." But Popovich and Buford were not available in person and Hammon had the spotlight entirely to herself. "Congratulations to Becky on todays announcement," Boyer said in a statement. "Its a great thing for her and for the NBA. I am still so thankful to John Lucas for giving me the opportunity to work with his NBA team during my time with the Cleveland Rockers. His staff and players welcomed me as a coach, and it was an incredible experience for me to spend that season with them." Last season, Hammon attended Spurs practices, film sessions and sat behind the bench at home game after suffering a torn ACL that kept her from playing. Shes been friends with Tony Parker and Tim Duncan since competing in an NBA All-Star shooting competition in 2008, a familiarity that will help as she makes her transition to coaching the two stars. "As far as women coaching men, its really silly. People ask me all the time, will there ever be a woman player in the NBA?" Hammon said. "To be honest, no. There are differences. The guys are too big, too strong and thats just the way it is. "But when it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, theres no reason why a woman couldnt be in the mix and shouldnt be in the mix." Its been a long time coming for female basketball players and coaches who have long dreamed of getting a chance in the NBA. "I was so excited and pleased and the one thing that people have to remember is that the San Antonio Spurs dont do anything for effect," said Nancy Lieberman, a former star player who was a head coach in the NBA Development League in 2009 and now serves as the GM of the Texas Legends. "Thats not who they are. They dont do this for the record-breaking barrier. They do things out of respect. "And the fact that coach Popovich has this much respect for Beckys basketball IQ, for how she handles herself with the guys in practice, her ability to relate to them, Im sure he saw so much when she was working with them last fall. Im sure he didnt hire her because she was a woman. Im sure he hired her because she was the best person for the job." "This will open the door for other women, even like myself," Lieberman added. "My goal is to coach in the NBA and youve got to start somewhere. So this is a great day." Charlotte Hornets sideline reporter Stephanie Ready, who served as an assistant on the Coppin State mens team as well as in the D-League, called Popovich the perfect person to hire Hammon "because hes proven he has a tremendous track record and he does not make bad decisions." "Thats the first step, having the precedent set is very important," Ready said. "A lot of it also is now women will know these jobs are available. In the past, a lot of women probably didnt try because they didnt think it was possible. I think you may very well see an increase in seeing some females hired." Hammon has a reputation of being a smart, hard-nosed, tough-minded player. She made six All-Star teams and averaged 13.1 points in her 16 seasons with the Stars and New York Liberty. Hammon was receiving congratulatory messages from all over, including from Lieberman, Boyer and Lakers star Kobe Bryant. "I love seeing people Ive been involved with have an opportunity in life to have these types of experiences," said Stars coach Dan Hughes, who has coached Hammon for eight years. "This one is unique. Shes ready for it, shell do a great job." Even tennis great Billie Jean King weighed in on the hire, congratulating the Spurs for acquiring "a key person based on their qualifications and not allowing gender to play a role in their decision." But like it was only a matter of time before a woman got a chance to coach in the NBA, its also only a matter of time before said coach finds herself in Popovichs crosshairs. "Im sure Pop will be yelling at me soon enough," Hammon said, "with the rest of them." 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Advancing to the Champions League quarterfinals should be a formality after Lionel Messi scored a penalty and Dani Alves added a late second to secure a commanding 2-0 advantage over City in the round of 16 on Tuesday.CALGARY - Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor entered the male world of four-man bobsled Saturday so they can have a race of their own in the future.Canadas Humphries and Meyers Taylor of the U.S. made their World Cup debuts as four-man pilots Saturday in Calgary.Humphries and Meyers Taylor drove all-male crews to 15th and 16th respectively in a field of 17 at Canada Olympic Park. A Latvian sled crashed in the first run and did not race the second heat.Womens bobsled has been a two-person event since it was introduced at the 2002 Winter Olympics, while the men have raced both two-man and four-man sleds since the 1932 Winter Games.(Elana) and I really want to try and get more women driving the four-man and eventually have womens four-man as its own event, so the women can have two events, two and four, and so can the men, Humphries said following the race.In the meantime, this kind of bridges the gap a little bit.Humphries defended her Olympic gold medal in womens bobsled while Meyers Taylor took silver in Sochi, Russia, this year.Hopefully its a starting point to get our own womens discipline, Meyers Taylor said. Thats what were after. If this is all we can do in the meantime, compete against men, were going to give it our best shot and go for it.Humphries finished 1.03 seconds behind and Meyers Taylor 1.68 back of winner Oskars Melbardis of Latvia, who swept the mens races in Calgary. Melbardis drove to four-man gold Saturday after winning the two-man race the previous evening.Francesco Friedrich of Germany took silver with teammate Maximilian Arndt driving another German sled to third. Calgarys Chris Spring and Justin Kripps of Kelowna, B.C., were 10th and 11th respectively.Another Latvian sled piloted by Oskars Kibermanis upended in the first run and slid the remaining two-thirds of the way down the track on its side.It was a reminder of how challenging it is to steer 1,388 pounds worth of sled and bodies 120 kilometres per hour down an icy track. Four-man has been compared to driving a school bus.Driving a four-man is no joke, Humphries acknowledged. Its a premier event, but when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong. It is a lot harder to control and to steer. Youve kind of got to take command of it.It was a hectic race day for Humphries and Meyers Taylor as the pilots had less than an hour between womens bobsled and the mens event.Meyers Taylor and brakeman Charelle Barrett won their second womens World Cup in as many races after taking gold in the season-opener last week in Lake Placid, N.Y.Anja Schneiderheinze and Franziska Bertels of Germany were second. Humphries and new brakeman Kate OBrien of Calgary took bronze.After accepting their flowers, Humphries and Meyers Taylor jumped in cars and quickly returned tto the top of the track for another pair of runs in the longer, heftier sleds with more horsepower pushing them off the start.ddddddddddddHumphries was reluctant to claim making bobsled history. The 29-year-old Calgarian points out there were mixed-gender sleds in the sports origins.I dont think we actually did make history, she explained. When the sport first began, there used to be four girls and one guy, way, way, way back. So really, in all fairness, I think were just going back to the roots of having a woman in with the men.Humphries crew of Dan Dale of Grande Prairie, Alta., D.J. McLelland of Calgary and Joey Nemet of Hamilton, Ont. also made their World Cup debuts Saturday.Im really proud of what she did today and kind of overcame having to do all four runs, two different races and drive two different sleds, Dale said. Its a testament to the kind of competitor she is.Humphries decribed their first run as sketchy, but they were faster in their second run than Krippss sled.Switching between two and four is a challenge especially today I think we saw that in my first run, Humphries said.Thats going to be the balance all year, for Alana and I to figure out how to switch between four-man and two-man. Most of the time we have a day in between to mentally wrap your head around it.Four men built like linebackers charging a sled towards the start line is like watching the running of the bulls. Its a testosterone-laden world.It was pretty cool to be in the start house with all the guys grunting and everything and Im just sitting in the corner listening to my music, Meyers Taylor said. Its pretty cool to get this World Cup under my belt.Meyers Taylor says women sledders from different countries will talk to each other, congratulate and wish each other luck before and between races.The men, they dont talk before the competition at all. You dont go say hi to Germany or whatever, the Californian said.The women in general, we tend to take it as a competition against ourselves. Were just trying to be as fast as we can down the hill. The men are competing one on one. Theyre out for blood.The Canadian bobsled and skeleton teams depart Dec. 30 for the next World Cup stop in Altenberg, Germany.Humphries will race the womens event there, but not four-man on that track. Springs team had a crash there in 2012 that put three of them in the hospital.Its a track thats not on the circuit all the time. Four-man for Kaillie this year isnt about going out and winning World Cup medals, Canadian bobsled coach Chris LeBihan said. Its about her skill acquisition of the four-man.Its not that we dont think Kaillie is good enough, but whether its really worth it based on what were trying to achieve and as a coaching staff we decided no. NFL Jerseys Wholesale Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys 2020 Wholesale NFL Gear China Jerseys Cheap Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys China ' ' '