Becky Hammon

“It's 2015, and I'm the first female coach in any of the major sports. That's ridiculous!”

“Playing basketball for me is like breathing.”

“Your mind is just constantly moving, thinking of different scenarios, not only on your team but their team too, trying to figure out things they are doing.”

“For me, I think it's such a notable point to make that a leader had to believe, a leader had to see that potential.”

“I know who I am. When you get comfortable with yourself like that and you know you're doing the right thing, you can take a lot of crap.”

“Hope and encouragement, especially hope, is probably one of the greatest things you can give another person.”

“I just think there's a real art in listening. I need to listen.”

“You're getting to know these guys as people, and as players. You have to develop a rapport. They give me a lot of respect.”

“I'm up for challenges. I'm up for being outside the box, making tough decisions and challenges... And I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.”

“It's not that I set out to say, 'I'm going be the first assistant coach in the NBA.' That really - it was never my intent. It just kind of happened very naturally.”

“People ask me all the time, will there ever be a woman player in the NBA? To be honest, no. There are differences. The guys are too big, too strong and that's just the way it is.”

“If you could play in the Olympics or sit on your couch and watch at home, what would you do? It was that simple. This is basketball; it's not war.”

“My whole childhood I grew up wanting to be a professional basketball player.”

“And a pick and roll in the women's game is a pick and roll on the men's game... I mean, character, working for each other - trusting your teammates. That stuff, that's universal.”

“But when it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there's no reason why a woman couldn't be in the mix and shouldn't be in the mix.”

“It's one thing to watch the NBA, but when you have to be there for every film session, every practice, it's a grind. It's a lot of hard work.”

“But, at the end of the day, you live in the world with billions of people, and everyone has a unique upbringing and experience.”

“Nothing in my life has really ever been easy. I've always been someone who did it uphill.”

“I was living my dream as a WNBA player.”

“I was always smaller and slower than everybody else, so I had to figure out other ways to be successful. Some people can survive on their athleticism; I had to survive on my brain.”