WNBA All-Star, Aces head coach Becky Hammon honored by USA TODAY

Becky Hammon is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. The program launched in 2022 as a continuation of Women of the Century, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year’s honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

Growing up in South Dakota, Becky Hammon didn’t have a lot of options. 

The Hammons didn’t have cable, so TV channels were (severely) limited. They didn’t own a video game system. They lived in a rural part of town in a remote state, which meant their children’s only playmates were often each other. 

So the Hammon kids – Becky is the youngest of three – played basketball all day, inside and out. If they weren’t traveling to each other’s games they were playing each other in the driveway. When they weren’t playing sports they were hunting, fishing and camping. They grew exceptionally close, which taught Hammon the value of relationships – and how to create them. 

“I’m really grateful for my roots in South Dakota. I had a really fun childhood. South Dakota was part of it but it was more because I had parents who were really invested in me and my siblings,” Hammon told USA TODAY. “Every weekend we were together doing something, and it really taught me how to relationship build. Now, my greatest strength as a leader is uniting people.”  

That skill has served her well as a coach, first as one of the only female assistants in the NBA to now, as a WNBA head coach. After years of being overlooked and underestimated, first by women’s teams who needed a point guard and later by men’s teams who needed a head coach, in 2021, Hammon was finally picked first, becoming the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. 

She made everyone who doubted her look downright silly her first season, leading the Aces to the franchise’s first-ever world championship. For Hammon, it’s just the latest in a long list of accomplishments. The six-time WNBA All-Star is one of the greatest players in the history of the league, and a two-time Olympian to boot. She’s also the USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree from South Dakota. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Oh man, that’s a loaded question. In the basketball world, I would say people like Annie Meyers, Sheryl Swoopes, Cheryl Miller, Carol Blazejowski, Nancy Lieberman – there’s been a ton of women who really had to endure much tougher circumstances than I did in order to be a basketball player. 

Growing up with no WNBA, it was kinda uncharted territory. To have that option come around in 1997, there were really some instrumental pieces. First, you had the 1995 UConn Huskies who went undefeated with Rebecca Lobo. Right after that, you had the ’96 Olympic Women’s…