Your Day in Women’s Basketball, December 23: Fisher takes on GM role in LA
By James Hyman
Derek Fisher set to tackle multiple roles with new position
On the day that the NBA returns, former player-turned-coach Derek Fisher added a new title in his tenure with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Fisher was named the General Manager among many other front office changes that saw President and COO Danita Johnson head east to work for D.C. United of the MLS.
With WNBA free agency on the doorstep, it was important for the Sparks to be internally organized in terms of leadership. Los Angeles have multiple key free agents they need to reach deals with in Nneka Ogwumike and Chelsea Gray, but the most notable is perennial MVP candidate Candace Parker.
Parker and Fisher have had their fair share of disputes in his two seasons at the helm, but his number one priority has to resigning her and he knows it. “Our intentions are to make sure that Candace never plays a game for another team,” Fisher said. “But we have to earn that back from her through the right conversations.”
For this move to work out for Los Angeles, Fisher will have to prove his worth in the playoffs. The past two years have seen the Sparks bounced earlier than anticipated at the hands of the Connecticut Sun, and some would say that Fisher made questionable coaching decisions that led to his players packing their bags for the offseason.
On Monday, Florida Gulf Coast University took down Florida International 80-66. While the game itself may have been mundane, the result was felt throughout the history of the Eagles program. This win gave FGCU 500 in the history of the school’s tenure with Division 1, and head coach Karl Smesko has been with the team since the beginning.
“To me, I just remember the people that have been involved. That’s what it’s all about,” Smesko said, and there have been a lot of people. FGCU has won the Atlantic Sun six out of the past eight years and have won multiple NCAA tourney games in that span.
This season, the Eagles are led by transfer Kierstan Bell, who has already won the A-Sun newcomer of the week award after a monster 20/20 game. Bell will also get the chance to show what she and FGCU are made of to the whole country, as their game against Liberty on January 10th will be the first ever Atlantic Sun game that is nationally televised.
One final tidbit of news from yesterday’s slate of games is that Caitlin Clark is somehow exceeding her massive expectations. The Iowa freshman posted a tribble double against Western Illinois and is currently the NCAA D1 leader in points per game at just under 30. So much for adjusting to college basketball.