While the Golden State Valkyries celebrate their first championship, their California neighbors in LA face much uncertainty. The Los Angeles Sparks are currently without a head coach. They also lost Kelsey Plum and Nneka Ogwumike, and Mark Walter is reportedly looking to sell the team.
The potential of an ownership change is obviously huge. But the team needs a new head coach, whether it’s sold or not. With their two biggest stars gone—one headed off to retirement and one to free agency—the Sparks should focus on a proper rebuild around Cameron Brink and whoever they can get in the next few drafts. Nevertheless, they must find a coach they trust can eventually coach a championship contender.
The Valkyries, and every last championship team this decade, offer a valuable lesson in the head coaching search: WNBA experience, either as a player or as an assistant coach, matters. Moreover, the Valkyries’ title proves how important it is to find a head coach who can build a strong identity and culture quickly—it might not translate to championship success as quickly as it did for Nakase, but players have to understand what and who they are playing for from the start. That is easier to accomplish if you’ve been around the league and its players and understand what they deal with as women in sports.
Every title in the 2020s so far has been won by a coach with WNBA experience
Recently, WNBA organizations have leaned toward hiring head coaches with NBA experience. The New York Liberty, for example, hired Chris DeMarco—which led to very mixed results—and the Portland Fire chose Alex Sarama. NBA experience is great. It certainly helped Becky Hammon become the coach she is today, but it hasn’t necessarily led to championship success in the WNBA.
Hammon led the Las Vegas Aces to three championships, but her experience as an NBA assistant coach wasn’t all that helped her get there. She also played in the WNBA for years. She helped the Liberty reach the finals three times, and she took the San Antonio Silver Stars to the 2008 WNBA Finals later on.
In the 2020s, no coach who didn’t have WNBA playing and/or coaching experience won a championship. Natalie Nakase, the newest WNBA championship coach, was an assistant under Hammon in Las Vegas before taking over in Golden State. Sandy Brondello, who led the Liberty to the title in 2024, had played and coached in the W for years before.
James Wade, who coached the Chicago Sky to the title in 2021, had been an assistant coach for the San Antonio Stars from 2012 to 2016 and worked under Cheryl Reeve for two seasons. The year prior, Gary Kloppenburg took over as the Seattle Storm’s head coach during the bubble. He had been an assistant coach in the W for many, many years at that point.
A deep understanding of the women’s game and the WNBA as a league is one of the common factors between recent championship coaches, and the Sparks should consider that in their hiring process.
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