Becky Hammon wins WNBA Coach of the Year in first season with Aces

Becky Hammon won the WNBA Coach of the Year Award in her first season at the helm of Las Vegas Aces.

She's the third former player to win the award and the first former player to do it in her debut season with a team. Hammond led the Aces to a 26-10 record in 2021 – tied with the Chicago Sky for the best in the WNBA – which set a franchise record. The team's 90.4 points per game also ranked first in the league and the Aces' .722 winning percentage is the also second-best ever for a first-year head coach. The Aces also won the 2022 Commissioner's Cup over the Sky.

Hammon's Aces broke a few other records as well during the 2021 season: Most points by a team in a season opener (106), most points by a team in one half (71) and most points per game by a team’s starters in a season (77.5 ppg).

All of that amounted to the No. 1 seed for the Aces, who will play the fourth-seeded Storm this weekend in the WNBA semifinals.

Hammon won the award with 27 votes. The Atlanta Dream's Tanish Wright earned 18 votes, while Chicago Sky head coach James Wade earned eight votes.

Hammon became the Aces' head coach after eight years as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. Before that, Hammon played 16 years in the WNBA for the New York Liberty and San Antonio Stars where she earned six All-Star nods and averaged 13.0 points per game during her career.