Writing for the Player’s Tribune, 17-year veteran Pau Gasol has taken up the subject of women coaching in the NBA. The piece comes in response to conversation around San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon potentially interviewing for the Milwaukee Bucks head coaching position. Gasol does not advocate for Hammon; he depicts the very idea as “patronizing”. Instead he systematically debunks common arguments against women coaching from his perspective as a player, revealing a few truths behind the world’s most prominent basketball league in the process.
After discussing his personal background and discussing Hammon’s qualifications, Gasol suggests that to players of high-level basketball, arguments against a woman coaching just because she’s a woman “seem ignorant”.