Perhaps it seemed out of the blue on a Tuesday afternoon in early August that the San Antonio Spurs would make sports history.

But history has been building for months now.

Becky Hammon isn't just going to appear on San Antonio's bench out of nowhere come fall. She isn't going to have to introduce herself to the Spurs players or spend a lot of time and energy getting acquainted with coach Gregg Popovich and his staff.

Hammon is already more to this franchise than the star women's player on its sister WNBA team. She has been part of the family for months, a presence long before she became a pioneer when Popovich hired her to become the first full-time female assistant coach in league history.

"They've been observing me for the last eight years," said Hammon, a six-time WNBA All-Star. "How I play, how I communicate, how I interact with teammates and fans and the community. It's never been about a woman thing. It's, 'Hey, she's got a great basketball mind, and we think she'd be a great addition.'"

But timing certainly has played into this unprecedented opportunity.

Hammon, 37, didn't go overseas this season. She stayed in the United States to rehabilitate after surgery to repair a torn knee ligament that ended her 2013 WNBA season after just one game.

She talked to Stars coach Dan Hughes about her desire to coach after her career was over and asked Hughes if he could put in a word for her with Popovich. Initially, Hammon said she just wanted to "peek my head in" on a few Spurs practices.

"It kind of snowballed from there," Hammon said. "Pop said, 'Yeah, come on over. I would love to show you the ropes.'"

Hammond's "internship," as she called it, included sitting in on coaches meetings and film sessions. She went to practice, directed drills and worked with players. Hammon, who was traded from New York to San Antonio prior to the 2007 WNBA season, has long been friends with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, the latter joking during practice at one point that it's Hammon who is actually in charge.

"Everybody knows her and respects her," Spurs forward Danny Green said in an NBA-produced video last spring.

During games, Hammon sat behind the Spurs bench taking it all in. She immersed herself in the X's and O's, the details that are her passion. She relished the conversations with the coaches, the dialogue and the options.

"It was the filming and the scouting and the defensive game plans," Hammon said. "We would analyze what they do great, how they could combat with X, Y and Z. It's the part of the game I've always loved. I have a very cerebral approach to basketball."

Popovich, in an interview in the spring, said Hammon fit right in with his team.

“

I'm comfortable with my basketball IQ, and I think coaching comes naturally to me. … I have a lot to learn. I'm not coming in here thinking otherwise. I'm here to be a part of the team, to help the guys in any way I can and really just serve these guys and get the best out of them.

” -- Becky Hammon on serving as a Spurs assistant coach

"She's been perfect," the Spurs coach said in the NBA feature. "She knows when to talk and when to shut up. That's as simple as you can put it, and a lot of people don't figure that out.

"She's right in the middle and she knows how to do it, and our players really respond to her."

He compared Hammon to the likes of Avery Johnson and Steve Kerr, heady guards during their playing days who are now NBA head coaches.

"She talks the game. She understands the game," he said.

Hammon, who will retire at the end of this season to cap a 16-year WNBA career, said she always felt like she has had "a little coaching in me."

"I'm a point guard," Hammon said. "I've spent a tremendous amount of time in film sessions and game planning. I'm comfortable with my basketball IQ, and I think coaching comes naturally to me. This is obviously a huge opportunity, but it's basketball and I'm very confident in that area.

"I have a lot to learn. I'm not coming in here thinking otherwise. I'm here to be a part of the team, to help the guys in any way I can and really just serve these guys and get the best out of them. Because when it comes down to it, it's about those guys."

For now, it's more than a little about Hammon.

The girl who grew up as a gym rat, asking her father when she was young whether she would ever play in the NBA (he gently told her no), the young woman who went from an undrafted free agent with the New York Liberty to one of the most accomplished players in WNBA history, has inspired the confidence of one of the league's most progressive, innovative and successful head coaches.

"Pop told me, 'As cool as it would be to hire you, you have to be qualified and I have to make sure you are qualified,'" Hammon said. "And I think that's the best way to go about it. It could be very catastrophic if I wasn't and then it sets the whole thing back."

As a 5-foot-6 point guard, decorated WNBA veteran Becky Hammon has never had the experience of shattering a backboard with a dunk.

She's busting through the glass ceiling instead.

The San Antonio Spurs hired Hammon as an assistant coach on Tuesday, making her the first full-time, paid female assistant on an NBA coaching staff.

When Hammon retires from her 16-year WNBA career at the end of the San Antonio Stars' season, she will immediately move to the staff of the defending NBA champions, working with the revered Gregg Popovich on scouting, game-planning and the day-to-day grind of practice like no woman has ever done before.

"Nothing in my life has really ever been easy. I've always been someone who did it uphill," Hammon said. "I'm up for challenges. I'm up for being outside the box, making tough decisions and challenges. ... And I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. Throw those all in there and this was the perfect challenge and opportunity."

That makes her fit right in with the Spurs, an organization with a reputation for bold decisions. Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have long been at the forefront of the league's international influx and earlier this summer hired European coaching legend Ettore Messina as an assistant.

During the 2001-02 season, Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas brought Lisa Boyer into the team's practices and some games. Boyer, now an assistant at South Carolina, was not paid by the Cavaliers and did not travel with the team, but did work with the players and coaches that season.

"I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff," Popovich said in a statement released by the team. "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."

Anthony Nesmith/Cal Sport Media/AP ImagesBecky Hammon is a six-time WNBA All-Star with San Antonio and New York who was named one of the league's top 15 players of all time in July 2011.

But Popovich and Buford were not available in person and Hammon had the spotlight entirely to herself.

Last season, Hammon attended Spurs practices, film sessions and sat behind the bench at home game after suffering a torn ACL that kept her from playing. She's been friends with Tony Parker and Tim Duncan since competing in an NBA All-Star shooting competition in 2008, a familiarity that will help as she makes her transition to coaching the two stars.

"As far as women coaching men, it's really silly. People ask me all the time, will there ever be a woman player in the NBA?" Hammon said. "To be honest, no. There are differences. The guys are too big, too strong and that's just the way it is.

"But when it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there's no reason why a woman couldn't be in the mix and shouldn't be in the mix."

It's been a long time coming for female basketball players and coaches who have long dreamed of getting a chance in the NBA.

"I was so excited and pleased and the one thing that people have to remember is that the San Antonio Spurs don't do anything for effect," said Nancy Lieberman, a former star player who was a head coach in the NBA Development League in 2009 and now serves as the GM of the Texas Legends. "That's not who they are. They don't do this for the record-breaking barrier. They do things out of respect.

"And the fact that Coach Popovich has this much respect for Becky's basketball IQ, for how she handles herself with the guys in practice, her ability to relate to them, I'm sure he saw so much when she was working with them last fall. I'm sure he didn't hire her because she was a woman. I'm sure he hired her because she was the best person for the job."

"This will open the door for other women, even like myself," Lieberman added. "My goal is to coach in the NBA and you've got to start somewhere. So this is a great day."

Charlotte Hornets sideline reporter Stephanie Ready, who served as an assistant on the Coppin State men's team as well as in the D-League, called Popovich the perfect person to hire Hammon "because he's proven he has a tremendous track record and he does not make bad decisions."

"That's the first step, having the precedent set is very important," Ready said. "A lot of it also is now women will know these jobs are available. In the past, a lot of women probably didn't try because they didn't think it was possible. I think you may very well see an increase in seeing some females hired."

Hammon has a reputation of being a smart, hard-nosed, tough-minded player. She made six All-Star teams and averaged 13.1 points in her 16 seasons with the Stars and New York Liberty.

Named one of the WNBA's top 15 players of all-time in July 2011, Hammon ranks seventh in WNBA history in points (with 5,809), fourth in assists (1,687) and sixth in games (445).

She is the league's all-time leader in assists (1,112) and 3-point field goals made (493) while ranking second in franchise history in points (3,442) and games (218). In 2012, Hammon was the top vote-getter for the Stars' All-Decade Team.

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AP Photo/Bahram Mark Sobhani"When it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there's no reason why a woman couldn't be in the mix and shouldn't be in the mix," Becky Hammon said Tuesday.

Hammon was receiving congratulatory messages from all over, including from Lieberman, Boyer and Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

"I love seeing people I've been involved with have an opportunity in life to have these types of experiences," said Stars coach Dan Hughes, who has coached Hammon for eight years. "This one is unique. She's ready for it, she'll do a great job."

Even tennis great Billie Jean King weighed in on the hire, congratulating the Spurs for acquiring "a key person based on their qualifications and not allowing gender to play a role in their decision."

But like it was only a matter of time before a woman got a chance to coach in the NBA, it's also only a matter of time before said coach finds herself in Popovich's crosshairs.

"I'm sure Pop will be yelling at me soon enough," Hammon said, "with the rest of them."

Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, meanwhile, was a teammate of Hammon's during an All-Star Weekend event in Dallas in 2010.

Reached in Europe on Tuesday, Nowitzki told ESPN.com's Marc Stein: "I'm happy for her. The Spurs are a great organization and she will [learn] from the best [in Popovich]."

Bryant also chimed in: "Big fan of Becky since she was in college. Very bright basketball mind."

Information from The Associated Press and ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst was used in this report.