When the news of San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich’s wife dying hit the media, all of the kneejerk “thoughts and prayers” social posts started flooding in. A few weirdos even suggested that the Spurs players “needed to win for Pop.” As if Popovich would be comforted by a victory in a basketball game at that moment.
Also strange, is how sports fanatics and talking head media types are full of all this strife and anger and insulting, until something bad happens. And then: “My thoughts and prayers are with the affected.”
Where was all that goodwill for the ones you disagreed with and spat at, over some superficial sports issue? “This is real life, not sports,” you might answer. Then you ought to remember that during the games, even when there is no present tragedy. The actual sports contests themselves are entertainment and never really matter.
Popovich needed a few days away from basketball to grieve and deal with family and burial preparation. The focus turned to who would lead the Spurs in their Game 3 playoff game against the Golden State Warriors.
With the first full-time female assistant coach in NBA history a part of the San Antonio staff, you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what everyone would start screaming.
“Spurs assistant Ettore Messina will coach in Game 3,” came the reports on Thursday, April 19, 2018.Â
“Should be Becky,” came the immediate responses. “Spurs organization is sexist.”
How are the Spurs sexist when they made Hammon the first female assistant ever? I wondered.
“To avoid being exposed as sexist,” seemed to be a common answer to my question.
What a head-scratcher, and I’m not talking about dandruff.
That’s called circular reasoning. Hiring someone they don’t really want, to avoid the false accusers of today’s #MeToo generation, and then trying to glass-ceiling Hammon for the rest of her professional life?… No. That simply doesn’t make sense to try and balance so-called misogynism with catering to 
I’m not saying that this never happens–trying to hold on to one thing while trying to please the push for “progress”–I’m simply saying it is not as common as the protestors seem to believe. When it does happen, those types are always exposed. None of this is progressive nor new:
In 1888, the Yale University football team was coached by a woman. She was the wife of Walter Camp, the “Father of American football.” Since he was too ill to discharge his duties as Yale’s football coach, Mrs. Camp substituted for her famous husband. It was the only time in history that a woman actually coached a major college football team for a full season.
–“Sports Shorts” by Mac Davis
This stuff is related to the push for black Americans to hold positions of leadership in the sports world. The NFL’s Rooney Rule, which forces teams to interview African Americans for front office positions, was cool for a while. But now, the rule is seen as a dodge: “They can just bring a black guy in, to say that they did, and never consider him again… we want more hires, not just interviews.”
Just hold your water, SJW’s. A female will get her head coaching chance in the NBA before too long. And it won’t be because someone died.
“She deserves a shot,” former NBA player Bryon Scott is recorded as saying. “It’s going to take somebody who has some guts, some imagination, and is not driven by old standards and old forms,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. Elsewhere, Popovich said, “there’s no gender when she walks on the court.” Really, Pop? I could argue that eliminating gender eliminates women. Maybe some people actually want that.
Becky Hammon turned down a position as the Colorado State men’s basketball head coach, probably because she wants to be that name mentioned as “the first female NBA head coach.” She wants it, and so do lots of Americans.Â
“There’s little doubt Hammon will land a head coaching spot down the road. She will have earned the right to be called “Head Coach” not because of her sex but because of her basketball knowledge,” a San Antonio outlet wrote. Well, that’s not quite true. The issue is not her knowledge, which is reportedly genuine, but the pushing.
In other words: It IS because of her sex. Why must a female lead the male athletes? Why aren’t other female ballplayers good enough to coach?
Even asking these questions anger people, not because the questions aren’t legit, but because these angry people don’t want to examine the answers. Every movie, TV program, radio song, and commercial has brainwashed us into “empowering women” and logic just doesn’t register anymore.
Think about this, too: If she gets her chance now, with the elderly 2018 Spurs going down in playoff flames, and the public drama between team star Kawhi Leonard and Popovich, then how will it look when she doesn’t succeed?
It is not going to happen. The assistant step-in named Ettore Messina is going to take the blunt force of San Antonio’s fall to Golden State. Everyone except diehard NBA historians are going to forget his name.
And, then, at some future point not-too-distant, Hammon or another woman will get a fresh start with a professional or high-profile college team. No way will she be put into a compromised position when she’s the “first.” This has to have the proper perception, when it happens. Because there is too much at stake.