In 2022, when the Las Vegas Aces decided to hire Becky Hammon, even they wouldn’t have expected the precedent she was setting. She is on her way to achieving a three-peat and becoming the first coach since Van Chancellor to do so. He led the Houston Rockets team to four consecutive titles from 1997 to 2000.

“Teams don’t win, coaches get fired period! And that’s what you sign up for.” Earlier this season, Becky Hammon outlined the difficulty of winning in the WNBA. Currently, everything is going in her favor, so let’s look at how she became one of the most dominating coaches in the league through the green that counts.

Where does Becky Hammon stand in the WNBA?

When she set foot in the league after her NBA stint, Hammon had already set the standards for other coaches with a reported salary of $1 million in 2022. However, it was broken the next season. In the 2023 offseason, the Phoenix Mercury announced hiring Nate Tibbetts as their next head coach after the franchise finished the 2023 season with the worst record in the W (9-31). And just like Becky Hammon, Tibbetts was a former assistant coach with the NBA team. After his move from the Orlando Magic to Mercury, he became the highest-paid WNBA coach of 2024.

The reports suggest that the current salary of the Phoenix coach is over way over $1 million and some reports state earning over $1.2 million. But at the time, there was some controversy, as he had zero coaching experience in the WNBA. But it seemed the move worked, as the team finished once again in the playoff spot. So with #1 Tibbetts and #2 Hammon as the top two highest-paid coaches, let’s look at the other coaches who earn the most in the league.

In the #3 position, we have the 3x WNBA Coach of the Year, Cheryl Reeve. When she began her duties with the Minnesota Lynx, she described it as her dream job. Currently, she also serves as the head coach of the Women’s USA Team who came home with their eighth consecutive Olympic gold. In 2022, she finally inked the deal and moved from general manager to president of basketball operations.

Thus, Reeve signed for $700k and became the third highest-paid WNBA coach. She also has the most wins as a head coach in WNBA history, leading the Lynx to four WNBA titles and 281 wins. But another coach contests that spot. Los Angeles Sparks’ coach Curt Miller, also draws the exact same salary as her. And he has racked up 150 wins with the Sparks and two WNBA finals appearances.

But that’s not the only battle, there is a three-way tie for the fifth spot on the list. Sandy Brondello, Christie Sides, and Eric Thibault all earn $500,000 yearly as head coaches. In 2022, Brondello signed a contract with the Liberty which the ‘Front Office Sports’ reported. Thibault is in his second season with the Mystics and signed a contract the same year as Brondello. Another coach who is in her second season is Sides with Fever. After a disappointing last season, the team made it to the playoffs this year. With major contributions coming from the Rookie and the #1 draft pick: Caitlin Clark.

But returning to the back-to-back champion coach, the Hall of Famer had set the expectations from the beginning.

Becky Hammon set a record when she arrived

Before coming to the W, she was the first full-time, paid female assistant coach in NBA history. Once she took charge of the Aces in 2022, the team owner revealed the importance of bringing Becky Hammon to the franchise. “Little girls, guys, anybody can look at her and say, ‘She’s just like me. A small basketball player who’s retired and she got the job and she’s making a million dollars. I can do that too.’ … That was really important to me to bring in that kind of value.”

Mark Davis spoke to Sam Gordon of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and confirmed the seven-figure salary for the coach. Even the 47-year-old was happy with her new setting. “I sat in a lot of [NBA] head-coaching interviews. Two things that people always said, ‘You’ve only been in San Antonio, and you’ve never been a head coach,'” Hammon told reporters in early January 2022.

“I feel like I’m ready to have my own team. And this is the organization that made it very, very obvious they wanted me really, really bad. And so it’s always good to be wanted.” Before making the transition, she was part of the San Antonio Spurs team under the leadership of legendary coach Gregg Popovich. At the time he was earning $11 million per year and currently earns $16 million per year and is the highest-paid coach for the upcoming season.

During that time, Becky Hammon was reportedly earning a $750,000 annual salary. Thus making it a minimum of a 33% increase from her NBA salary to reach the $1 million mark. If Hammon completes a three-peat, surely she could sign a contract that makes her highest coach again and extend her previously reported 5-year deal. The people of the ‘Sin City’ know how their mayor is all about enhancing the franchise and just might give Hammon the deal she would put forward.