Mark Davis and the Las Vegas Aces are confident they have a coaching legend on their hands in Becky Hammon

• Becky Hammon has been an assistant coach for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs for eight years.
• The six-time WNBA All-Star is now returning to the women's game as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces.

Becky Hammon is headed back to the WNBA.

And her new employers are extremely confident that they've hired one of the best in the business to lead their franchise.

After eight years as an assistant under legendary San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, Hammon is leaving men's basketball to become the head coach and general manager of the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces. On New Year's Eve, the franchise announced that the six-time WNBA All-Star agreed to terms on a historic five-year contract that will make her the highest-paid coach in the league.

That level of investment displays remarkable faith in Hammon within the Aces organization — particularly from owner Mark Davis and team president Nikki Fargas. And Hammon confirmed as much during her introductory press conference on Monday.

"You know, I sat in a lot of [NBA] head coaching interviews, and [there are] two things that people always said: you've only been in San Antonio, and you've never been a head coach," Hammon said. "Well, I can tell you right now, Mark Davis met me, Nikki [Fargas] met me and said, 'That's a head coach right now. That's a head coach right now. We're going after her. She's the person."

"And so that's why they got me," she added.

Fargas — a college player and NCAA champion with the Tennessee Volunteers who later became a coach at the collegiate level — took the compliments for her recent hire a step further during Monday's press conference. The former UCLA and LSU head coach compared Hammon to late coaching legend Pat Summitt, the eight-time national champion and Hall of Famer whom Fargas played for and eventually coached under at the University of Tennessee.

"Becky has this intensity about her that absolutely gives me chills because to a certain degree, Becky, you remind me a little bit of Coach Summitt," Fargas said. "There's a little bit of that in you where you can just fire somebody up, but also they know that you're gonna put your arm around them, that you're gonna be there for them, [and] that you're there for them as the person and not just a uniform."

It's undoubtedly high praise for someone who has yet to take the helm of her own team, but Fargas isn't the only one who's bullish about Hammon. Davis said in Las Vegas' New Year's Eve press release that he "was hopeful that one day [Hammon] would rejoin the family" ever since the two met in September, when the Aces retired her jersey.

"I just never imagined it would happen this soon," the Las Vegas Raiders and Aces owner added.

And though he's sure to miss her on his own sideline, Popovich also believes Hammon is ready to take over her own team.

"I've come to depend on her a great deal, but for her, it's a great opportunity to have a head coaching job at that level, to prove herself," " the Spurs head coach said. "She's already proven herself to me, but that doesn't matter in the long run."

"She's interviewed for a few jobs in the NBA and she would've been more than qualified and done a great job in several of those situations, but it didn't work out," he added. "... But she's certainly capable and I think she'll prove that in Vegas."

"They've got a hell of a coach coming their way."