Becky Hammon Cites Aces Struggles On Team Being 'Freaking Celebrities'
The two-time defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces are now one game away from being eliminated from the 2024 playoffs after losing to the New York Liberty by a score of 88-84 on Tuesday.
Aces head coach Becky Hammon seemed to have a stressful evening. She was seen screaming at star guard Kelsey Plum during a timeout in the first half and was visibly frustrated on the bench at multiple points in the game.
It's clear to anybody who has seen Las Vegas play this year that they aren't the same team that won two consecutive WNBA championships the past two seasons. And Hammon — who has watched the Aces more than anybody else — gave her explanation as to why this is during Tuesday's postgame press conference.
"Quite frankly, we haven't had the edge," Hammon said of the Aces this season, per Tyler DeLuca. "The feel was different from the jump. And this is why three-peating is hard. Let's be real. Like, the whole league has been pissed off for the last 8 months, and my players are in commercials, and this, and that, and being freaking celebrities. And you get distracted. That's why it's hard.
"Because human nature is distracting," Hammon added. "And conversely, you think about the Spurs... with the Miami Heat. They lost an absolute heartbreaker in Miami [in 2013]... they should have walked away with a title that year. They lost it that year. The next year, they came back with so much drive, so much discipline, so much focus. That there was no way somebody was beating them in 2014."
She continued, saying, "Liberty took a huge loss last year. And I liken it to [the Spurs in 2013], a little bit. Where they had it, they felt like they had it, and we walked away with it... so I'm sure they feel like something was stolen."
Here is the full answer from Becky Hammon, including the quote below and a reference to the Spurs/Heat 2013/2014 NBA Finals.
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) October 2, 2024
A pretty massive quote here from Becky. #WNBA https://t.co/Hbj9YImENX pic.twitter.com/c5c0ZudyQW
It's fascinating to hear Hammon equate those iconic NBA Finals battles between LeBron James' Miami Heat squads and the San Antonio Spurs (who she was an assistant coach for, starting in 2014).
Hammon makes it sound like the Liberty are destined to win this year's WNBA title.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.