Sawt Falasteen - NBA Raptors eye WNBA's Hammon in coach search: report

The report, citing unnamed sources, also said the Raptors had received permission to speak with several NBA assistant coaches and planned to speak with Toronto assistant coach Adrian Griffin about the job.

Hammon, named as a 2023 enshrinee into the Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this month, served as an assistant coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs from 2014-2022.

The Raptors fired Nick Nurse as head coach last week after a 41-41 season that ended with a loss to Chicago in the NBA's play-in tournament.

Hammon, last year's WNBA Coach of the Year for guiding the Aces to a crown in her rookie campaign, would become the NBA's first female head coach, although she has briefly assumed such a role before.

On December 30, 2020, Spurs' head coach Gregg Popovcich was ejected in the second quarter of an NBA game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Hammon took over as acting head coach, the first woman in such a position.

Hammon, 46, was born in the United States but became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2008 and played for Russia in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, taking a bronze medal 15 years ago at Beijing.

Hammon was a six-time WNBA All-Star guard for the New York Liberty and San Antonio Stars who averaged 13.9 points, 3.8 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals a game in her career.

NBA assistants the report said the Raptors have been approved to speak with about replacing Nurse included Golden State's Kenny Atkinson, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson, Milwaukee's Charles Lee, Phoenix's Kevin Young, Miami's Chris Quinn, Sacramento's Jordi Fernandez and Darko Rajakovic of Memphis.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST