The Daily Swish: San Antonio Spurs hire Becky Hammon, Odyssey Sims' big game, and Shoni Schimmel's league-wide impact

There have been plenty of reactions to Becky Hammon making history by getting an assistant coaching job with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and there will probably be plenty more as she wraps up her WNBA career.

For today, we look at some of the more interesting reactions from around the web and also take a brief look at scores from last night's WNBA action.

Becky Hammon's new job

To the point of whether Becky Hammon is first female NBA assistant coach, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today offered some additional details on Lisa Boyer's role with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2001-02 season, noting that she was not paid by the Cavs and did not travel with the team. Former Akron Beacon Journal beat writer Chris Tomasson tweeted more bluntly that "Boyer wasn't any kind of a real assistant coach". Boyer is a trail blazer in her own right but it's important not to let Boyer's position diminish the significance of the Spurs hiring Hammon for a concretely different position -  the fact that Hammon is the first women to be paid to do the work of an assistant coach, travel with her team, and be publicly acknowledged as a member of a NBA staff is different than anything that has come before her. Read more >>>

Kate Fagan of espnW offered a first-hand account of what it's like to play with (and, essentially, for) Becky Hammon and did a good job of describing how what she does as a player should translate to coaching noting that, "In that split second, I realized that she had scouted my game and processed exactly how I might be most effective and also exactly how she could take advantage of my strengths." Read more >>>

Ken Berger of CBS Sports offered a great quote from Hammon about why she chose coaching over TV (which I'm sure she'd also be very good at): "I always knew it was either going to be TV or coaching. The more I got into the TV thing, one of the analysts I worked with he said, 'Man, when you do TV, you never have to leave the gym a loser.' And my thought process was, 'Yeah, but you never get to leave a winner, either.' I love the competitive part of it." Read more >>>

Bria Turner of the A Light in the Dark blog concisely framed an important takeaway from the Hammon hiring: "Hammon successfully executed the exact plan I’ve always been given when asking mentors, professors and professionals for advice: Network. Seek volunteer/internship opportunities. And let your work speak for itself." Read more >>>

Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News wrote an article back in February describing Hammon's experience with the Spurs this offseason is also worth a read for some context about how Hammon's season-ending ACL injury in 2013 became a "blessing in disguise" leading up to yesterday's historic news. Read more >>>

Prior to the announcement of Becky Hammon being hired, Henry Abbot of ESPN's True Hoop Network interviewed recently-hired NBA Players Association executive director Michele Roberts about the role of women in sports. She discussed the progress of women in sports, what it will take to see more progress, and how she sees herself as an advocate for women in sports moving forward as one of the few in a position of power. Of note for WNBA fans, Roberts said she's equally excited to be representing WNBA players as she is about the NBA. Read more >>>

WNBA scores

Tyler Killian of AZ Central Sports reported on the Phoenix Mercury's franchise-record 24th win of the season that came against the Atlanta Dream last night. The Dream were without both All-Star center Erika de Souza and head coach Michael Cooper but remained within striking distance throughout before falling 75-67. Brittney Griner fell just short of a triple-double with 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 blocks. Read more >>>

Brent Cahwee of Native News Online previewed Shoni Schimmel's visit to Phoenix, Arizona where she made history for scoring the most points in a WNBA All-Star Game (29). Cahwee notes that five WNBA teams have hosted a "Native American Heritage Night" of some sort when Schimmel is in town as she is a major draw even though she's not a starter. And as described by the staff of the Native Times and elsewhere, these are multi-cultural events: 38 different federally recognized tribes took part in activities at the BOK Center when Atlanta visited the Tulsa Shock last Thursday. Read more >>>

Mike Brown of the Tulsa World summarized an outstanding month of July for Tulsa Shock rookie Odyssey Sims, which earned her Rookie of the Month honors. A statistical note: "For the season, she leads WNBA rookies in points (453), assists (122) and steals (42). Among all players, she is fifth in assists (4.2 per game) and 10th in scoring (15.6)." Sims celebrated the award with a dominant 30-point performance in the Tulsa Shock's 96-90 win against the L.A. Sparks last night at Staples Center.  Read more >>>

Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune responded to Maya Moore winning her fourth of the last five Western Conference Player of the Month awards with a question: "How did Moore NOT win the league's MVP award last season? I suspect that oversight will be corrected this summer." Read more >>>

For more on last night's WNBA action, check out our WNBA scores section. If you have links you think we should be aware of, you can stick them in the comments or create a fanshot so we can share them with the Twitter and Facebook world.