Becky Hammon Issues ‘Greatest’ Take On Chelsea Gray After Assist Milestone
Chelsea Gray helped the Las Vegas Aces to a 99-84 win against the Dallas Wings with 12 points and 9 assists. During the game, she cracked the 2000-assist milestone. Only five other players have reached that number in WNBA history: Sue Bird, who holds the all-time record with 3234 assists, Courtney Vandersloot, Ticha Penicheiro, Diana Taurasi, and Lindsay Whalen. Gray is now sixth on the all-time assist list with 2003, but will catch up to Whalen and Taurasi eventually.
After more than four seasons and three championships, Becky Hammon is rarely surprised by Gray’s assists, although she admitted in the postgame media availability that the occasional crazy pass still catches her off guard. Either way, Hammon wanted to make sure that no one undervalues Gray’s greatness and talent as a playmaker.
“We talk about A’ja, not sleeping on her greatness,” Hammon said, per a stream of the media availability on the Aces’ YouTube channel. “We don’t want to sleep on Chelsea’s greatness either because what she does is really special and in a way generational. You see somebody like an Olivia Miles that’s kind of that next generation point guard of doing things that you can’t teach. That’s a feel, that’s special vision, and Chelsea’s the greatest at it.”
A new generation of star point guards is on the rise
The WNBA has seen an influx of star guards in recent years. Caitlin Clark took the league by storm in 2024, setting a new record for total assists in a rookie season and leading the entire league in assists.
Paige Bueckers was next in line. Although not a traditional point guard, Bueckers averaged 5.4 assists per game and finished tenth in total assists.
This year, Olivia Miles entered the league as the number-two overall pick. She’s leading the league-first Minnesota Lynx in points and assists and dazzling with her court vision and ability to place the ball in just the right spot.
With the emergence of new star point guards, it’s important to remember who came before them and who they’re chasing. Chelsea Gray is far from done yet, but she is already one of the best passers in league history and one of the winningest players ever. Only Rebekkah Brunson has won more championships than Gray, but given the Aces’ sustained dominance, that could change soon.
Clark and Miles, in particular, will quickly climb up the all-time assists list and establish themselves as two of the best passers to ever play the game, but they still have a long way to catch up with the Point Gawd for now in terms of records and championships.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.