Big News, Kind of

San Antonio Spurs’ assistant coach Becky Hammon made history Wednesday night when she became the first women to coach an NBA game. Hammon got her chance after head coach Greg Popovich was ejected in the second quarter of a 121-107 loss to the Lakers. Big news? Yes. Sort of. According to my research, Hammon is one of six female assistant coaches in the NBA this year. So, I guess that theoretically, should six head coaches get ejected, six female assistants could, again theoretically, take over. From as far as I can tell, the NFL has four female assistant coaches. The only thing here is that the next NFL head coach to be ejected will be the first. As for baseball, there’s one female coach, Alyssa Nakken of the Giants. She might get to manage if the manager, bench coach and third base coach all got tossed, though I’m not even sure Nakken is in the dugout for all games. Regardless, we’re either talking accidents or hypotheticals here. The question is, how long before women serve as head coaches or managers, and for that I won’t hold my breath.