In Super Squads, The Athletic follows the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces in their quests to win a WNBA championship. Our reporters will tell the stories of the players on two of the most star-studded teams in league history and examine how their paths shape the future of the WNBA.
LAS VEGAS — When Becky Hammon was hired by the Las Vegas Aces before the 2022 season, the first-time head coach had a lot of decisions to make: whom to bring on her staff, what her team’s foundation would be on both sides of the ball, how to optimize A’ja Wilson and more.
Advertisement
The easiest call proved to be what she and her assistants would wear during games: hoodies.
It’s what she wears during practice, what she wears during her pregame media availabilities (usually a different one from the one she wears to coach two hours later), and what she wore long before arriving in Las Vegas. As Hammon says, “I love hoodies.”
The one holdup was that wearing hoodies alone would violate the WNBA dress code. Coaches on the same team either all have to wear business attire or WNBA-licensed polo shirts or quarter zips, so Hammon had to find a workaround. That came in the form of blazers. Each Aces coach would wear a hoodie and a blazer on top to satisfy the “business attire” requirement while still retaining the preferred piece of Hammon’s wardrobe. The coaching staff even stayed within the Aces color scheme, mixing and matching red, white and black apparel to create the league’s signature bench look.
“That’s the greatest thing about our staff is we do everything together,” assistant coach Natalie Nakase says. “We have fun together.”
There was one exception to the team’s uniformity: shoes.
“The shoe game is your own,” Hammon says. “You gotta bring your own original.”
Wearing sneakers proved to be another upside to the business casual wardrobe. Hammon says her knees — she suffered torn ACLs in her left and right legs during her playing career — preclude her from wearing heels while coaching. Considering Hammon refuses to take a running start or even jump when she joins the team’s half-court shot challenges during practice, it’s fair to say she’s putting as little pressure on her knees as possible.
After what the Aces accomplished in Year 1 under Hammon, there was little thought given to overhauling the process in 2023.
“We rolled with it, and then we won with it, so now I think we’re gonna keep with it,” Hammon said in the preseason. “Now we’re stuck, and the people now expect hoodies, so we’re gonna give them hoodies.”
Advertisement
One minor adjustment to this year’s process has been an extra splash of color. Rather than all four coaches matching on the sidelines, Hammon has expanded the palette, adding green, purple, pink, gray and even a few checkered-patterned blazers to the rotation.
After acknowledging to Bally Sports that the double-layer top caused her to get exceedingly hot last year, Hammon has also landed on another workaround in her second season to make her outfits more Vegas-friendly during the summer, as she discovered some blazers that have built-in hoodies to limit some of the additional fabric. It’s allowed her to “open the doors on the hoodie game” this year.
“My thing is most of the time when I find something I really like, I buy it in every color,” Hammon says, realizing that this gives her something in common with her boss Mark Davis, who has a long list of the same white pieces in his wardrobe. “I’m that person, very picky, so you’re like, ‘I think she wore that already.’ I probably already have five of the same thing, so I’m not wearing it actually twice in a row.”
Hammon doesn’t need a flair for fashion to distinguish herself as a WNBA coach; her resume on the court does that for her. But being the coach who brought hoodies to the league isn’t exactly a bad brand to have. Cayla George, who signed with the Aces in free agency this past offseason, noted that even before she met her new coach in person, she could tell Hammon had swag.
Now, Hammon is just waiting for her assistants to embrace their newfound sartorial freedom, as they’ve mostly stayed within the Las Vegas team colors. Regardless of how casual they get in their sideline attire, it’s clear the Aces always mean business on the court.
The Super Squads series is part of a partnership with Google Lens. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Illustration: Ray Orr / The Athletic; Photos: Steve Marcus / Getty Images, Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k29rbmhoZnxzfJFsZmluX2eFcK7EnKKyZZiWuq67zWaYnJ2jYrWwu8OinKxn