After giving Becky Hammon a chance as an assistant, and it was a first in the NBA, Gregg Popovich completed his bench this season with Candice Dupree, hired to take care of player training. Like Hammon, he’s a former WNBA star. Like Hammon, she is a woman. But don’t go talking about diversity with Gregg Popovich!
« I don’t want to create any discomfort here, and hire a woman for the sake of hiring a woman or a black man for the sake of hiring a black man.“said Popovich. ” It’s about hiring qualified people, and (Dupree) happens to be a woman. But I didn’t hire her because she’s a woman. I hired her because she was a hell of a player, she understands the game, she is very talented and she will bring something to the program, just like Becky did. So it’s not about being a woman« .
38 year old Dupree played 16 years in the WNBA. A seven-time All-Star, she won a title with the Mercury in 2014 and is the fifth-highest scorer in league history. Retired for a year, she began her career in coaching in San Antonio after having made her mark in the “NBA Assistant Coaches Program”, a course created by the NBA to train former players in the profession of coaching. ‘assistant. We saw it at the Draft Combine with the university players who were preparing for the Draft.
