Born to parents Martin and Beverly, Hammon's father was in the United States Coast Guard. Hammon played high school basketball at Stevens High School in Rapid City, South Dakota. During her high school career, she was South Dakota Miss Basketball as a junior and South Dakota Player of the Year as a senior, averaging 26 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game during her senior season. After her standout career there, she attended Colorado State University.

Hammon had a distinguished career at Colorado State. Her prolific scoring made her an All-American as well as Colorado Sportswoman of the Year. She led her team to a 33-3 record in the 1998-1999 season and helped them advance to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen. She was the WAC Mountain Division player of the year for the 1998-1999 season and surpassed University of Utah player Keith Van Horn as the WAC's all-time leading scorer. Hammon holds many Colorado State all-time records, including points (2740), points per game (21.92), field goals made (918), free throws made (539), three-point field goals made (365), assists (538) and steals (315). On November 12, 2004, Becky Hammon was inducted into the Colorado State University Sports Hall of Fame. On January 22, 2005, her #25 Colorado State jersey was retired at the Moby Arena.

Undrafted during her rookie season, Hammon was signed to the WNBA on May 12, 1999 and joined the New York Liberty. While given limited minutes off the bench as a backup to star Teresa Weatherspoon, her aggressive play quickly got her noticed by the fans and coaching staff and she would land a starting role with the team in 2000.

Primarily used to provide instant points off the bench, Hammon finally had a breakout season in 2003, providing much-needed offense for the Liberty. However, her season was cut short by a season-ending knee injury.

When aging star Teresa Weatherspoon was not re-signed by the team that year, Hammon was thrust into the starting point guard role. She would help guide the Liberty to a playoff berth in 2004 amongst very close competition in the Eastern Conference.

On August 5, 2004 Hammon represented the WNBA All-Stars in the WNBA vs. USA basketball game that pitted the 2004 USA Women's Basketball team against WNBA players at Radio City Music Hall. On August 16, 2005 Hammon scored her 2000th WNBA career point.

--Wikipedia