Becky Hammon on how she CONVINCED Tiffany Hayes to UNRETIRE from the WNBA and play for Aces

hey coach hi there um so last time you played this guy that was Chelsea G's first start since came back from injury and I'm just wondering if you kind of talk about how you've seen her get more comfortable in her body on the court since making come back I think she's still figuring it out um probably a better question for her um you know we know the most important thing is her presence in her eyes and her brain on the court and then you know what girl just like figure the body part out she'll get there she'll get there um she'll find out ways that you know she can be effective in her spots um but that's probably a better question for her to answer honestly Becky I want to take you back to 2022 you and I thought you gonna say like 1999 or something you and N show up for athletes unlimited and you see s Coulson is far from retirement she needs to be brought especially for her locker room presence I got think for getting people in retirement exactly so with that being said um she went from the breaker retirement standup comedy to two time wbhm with Tiff I don't know if the Situation's act same but she was retired um just what you thought of why her what she's brought and what this organization can do for someone who still has life in their game um I actually met Sydney at the weekend I mean I knew Sydney before but not like hadn't really had extensive talks with her but when they retired my jersey and they had kind of like that little alumni kind of weekend she done she was done you know and um once at that point I really didn't have any intentions of coming back to the w i really hadn't thought about it um so it didn't cross my mind to be like like hey Sid you know would you like to come back and play cuz I I wasn't even going to be around here I didn't think um until I got in a phone call with Nikki and then you know how things change if you get on with Nikki so [Music] um yeah I mean with tip I've always had a lot of respect for tip um I've always just kind of watched her from from afar but her competitiveness and her try hard tror which is something I'm always really big on um she naturally has that kind of engine um she is naturally a gas pedal um she's super fast and I I thought her wording on her um retirement was interesting which was I'm retiring from the WNBA which meant she's still open to playing overseas and my thing was like well maybe we could get her in a situation um to where she was enjoying and having fun again and um because when you when you come to this job and it feels like a job you need to check yourself because uh you you're playing basketball and you should be living like your best life um I think she was living her best life on a beach and then we called and luckily she took our phone call but I mean um I was on a group chat with a text and we were going through um just kind of names that were out there and I was like what about Tiffany Hayes and they're like she retired I was like I freaking know like call anyways because I'm like we're going to shoot our shot the worst she can say is now I'm good with my margarita and and stay on that beach somewhere um but luckily she she took our phone call our phone our first initial phone call went really well um and she's been she gives us another gear I mean it's been a while since we've had somebody like score 17 Off the Bench or whatever you know last year we had Alicia Clark and and this year too she's just steady at it you just know what you're going to get Tiff has microwave score ability meaning instant offense you know she gets out there and she's just disruptive she's she's exactly what we need who is in the group N business no it was just Executives in the organization decision makers yeah I just just a quick one on Lindsay Harding I saw it was a today she took a a job with the Lakers and they have a relationship with her I'm wonder if you could talk about that relationship and just reactions to that news I just saw her yesterday um Lindsay's awesome uh you know I competed against her she played 10 years in the league she's a number one pick she's done a lot of winning in her career as a as a player and now as a coach you know her uh last year getting coach of the year in the G League I thought was unbelievable um really happy for her uh and I think you know moving to another organization getting to see how another organization moves and works and learning under somebody different um as great as sack has been to her I think um you know she's constantly trying to to learn and grow um so I thought it was awesome she she told me she was she was like talking to them and but she hadn't taken the job yet she was this just yesterday um uh she had told me about it and I I told her I think it would be great you know to to get to a different organization see how people run things differently learn under somebody new um get get to establish relationship with other players get to know other players um you're you're just you can always be a sponge no matter what what position you're in and I think um you know getting on with JJ they got a whole Duke thing going on probably um they take care of their so I'm happy before okay we'll jump to zoom for one Jordan go ahead hey coach how are you doing today so good how are you I'm all right so just a quick question all right say all right it Demands a followup what do you mean all right so just a quick question so I know the last two games you've emphasized about getting off to better starts in the first quarter we know Chicago's really good at getting off to fast starts what do you think needs to happen for your team in order to not allow that to happen especially they really good at getting off to bad starts oh fast starts I was like I'm not quite sure how to answer that question oh yes well they're the 100 mph car on the freeway we can't be the 65 mph car on the freeway um we got to come out with a sense of urgency defensively um once we establish ourselves on the defensive end I feel pretty good about our offense but uh we don't want to be playing catch up with this team um the mathematics don't doesn't work if they're cruising at one speed and we're you know a lot slower St behind and using the first quarter to warm up I'm not thrilled with that so hopefully we can um change it up start to uh create some new habits coming out because I I don't like digging out a whole eventually that's that whole bite or bears you um so um it'll be something I'm closely watching hopefully I don't have to call the first time out hopefully spoon es first time out thank you y thanks back thank you you beta