Aces coach Hammon added to Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

New Aces coach Becky Hammon is among eight people named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022.

Hammon, Penny Taylor and Doug Bruno headline the class. The trio is joined by Alice “Cookie” Barron, Delisha Milton-Jones, Paul Sanderford, Bob Schneider and Debbie Antonelli in a group that will be inducted on June 11.

Hammon is being honored for her playing career in the WNBA and at Colorado State. She was a six-time All-Star and was voted one of the WNBA’s 15 greatest players of all-time in 2011.

After retiring as a player, Hammon became a trailblazer in coaching as the first female assistant coach in the NBA, joining Gregg Popovich’s staff with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. She was named Aces coach in December, but is finishing out the season with the Spurs.

“This is the organization that made it really obvious — they wanted me really, really bad,” Hammon said at a press conference last month officially annoucning her hiring. “It’s always good to be wanted. So it quickly became evident to me that Las Vegas was the place for me.”

Aces president Nikki Fargas and owner Mark Davis said Hammon was the only person they considered when choosing a new coach for the team.

“A championship is well within reach,” Hammon said of the Aces. “That opportunity in itself, to walk into a situation with a winning team and the caliber of players that I’ll be inheriting from Bill (Laimbeer) and the foundation he laid, I’m super fortunate and super blessed. Obviously very excited.”

Taylor starred both with the Phoenix Mercury and the Australian national team. She helped the Mercury win three WNBA championships and Australia to its two Olympic silver medals.

Bruno has coached at DePaul for 36 years, guiding the team to 24 NCAA Tournament appearances. He’s a three time Big East Coach of the Year and also has coached USA Basketball at nearly every level, leading them to gold six times.

Barron played for the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens and lead the Plainview, Texas, team to an undefeated mark of 104-0 in her time there from 1954-1957. Wayland won three national championships.

Milton-Jones won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. national team and also helped the Los Angeles Sparks to two WNBA titles. She won the Wade Trophy in 1997.

Sanderford led Western Kentucky to three Final Fours; the team finished second in 1992. He went 453-189 in his 25 seasons as a college head coach. Sanderford also guided Louisburg College to the JUCO national championship in 1981.

Schneider was the third-winningest coach in Division II history with 634 wins. In his 40 years of coaching at the collegiate and high school level, he only had two losing seasons while amassing 1,045 victories.

And Antonelli is being honored as a contributor to the game. She’s been a college analyst for 34 years and has helped start numerous in-season tournaments around the country.

The Hall of Fame also is giving its 2022 Trailblazers of the Game award to Title IX, the federal law that requires athletic departments to provide general equivalence for men and women that turns 50 this year.

“Without Title IX, our past and future inductees and trailblazers would not have had the opportunity to blaze those trails,” Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees Chair Carol Stiff said. “It is only fitting that we honor Title IX as it has impacted so many female athletes not only in women’s basketball but in all sports.”