Becky Hammon, a veteran of the WNBA, will become the first woman in a full-time coaching job when she starts work as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

Becky Hammon Named Spurs Assistant Coach

It was announced that Hammon, 37, would join the Spurs coaching staff on Thursday.

"I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement. "Having observed her working with our team this past season, I'm confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."

Hammon, who has played her last eight seasons with the San Antonio Stars, announced that she’d be retiring at the end of this season earlier this summer. In July 2011, the six-time All-Star and two-time first-team All-WNBA player, was named one of the WNBA’s Top 15 players of All Time. Hammon, hoping to parlay her playing experience into a successful coaching career, has expressed her gratitude for the opportunity with the Spurs.

"I'm just incredibly grateful, obviously, to the Spurs organization and Coach Pop and (Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford)," Hammon said. "The whole staff really just from day one has been so great to me. I'm a little overwhelmed right now, to be perfectly honest.

"There's women that have trail-blazed much bigger paths and really trail-blazed the path for things like this to happen," Hammon added. "There's a lot more important things going on, in the bigger things, CEOs of companies. Women are really in every area. They're in the surgery rooms. They're doctors. They're lawyers. They're COOs.

"So even me sitting here today to be able to have the playing experience that I had as a professional basketball player, women went before me to pave that trail," Hammon went on. "So I'm really just reaping benefits of all their hard work and labor."

Gregg Popovich On Hammon

Popovich, who has led the Spurs to five NBA championships, is confident that his new hire has what it takes to make an impact in the organization.

"She's right in the middle and she knows how to do it and her players really respond to her. She's just a natural,” Popovich told Inside Stuff. "She talks the game, she understands the game. So for all those reasons you really know she's got that same sort of Avery Johnson, Steve Kerr, (Mike) Budenholzer type thing."

In her assistant coaching job, which she maintains she received for her basketball acumen and not her gender, Hammon expects to be treated like any other assistant. She’ll be responsible for helping with scouting, player development, game tape sessions and helping out with strategy.