Newly hired coach Lynne Roberts said Thursday the Sparks “should be the best organization, program, team,” in the WNBA and that Los Angeles should be the league’s “premier market.”
“I’m a competitor at heart, so I’m up for the challenge,” Roberts said at her introductory news conference at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday afternoon.
“I know there’s going to be peaks and valleys … but I’m here to do what I can and do my part to win as many games as we can and get that championship culture back here.”
Roberts’ hiring to succeed Curt Miller was announced Tuesday. The Sparks announced on Sept. 24 they had “mutually agreed to part ways” with Miller, five days after completing his second season with a league-worst 8-32 record.
Roberts is the Sparks’ third permanent coach since they last reached the WNBA playoffs in 2020. They last won the WNBA Finals in 2016, last reached the WNBA Finals in 2017 and last won a playoff game in 2019.
Roberts, 49, had coached the University of Utah since the 2015-16 season, guiding the Utes to a 165-116 record and berths in the NCAA tournament each of her final three full seasons. The team was off to a 3-1 start when she resigned to accept the Sparks’ position.
“I’ve been asked, `Why are you doing this?”’ Roberts said. “Why wouldn’t I do this … when what I want (is) to be the premier market in the WNBA? We’ve got the support. I trust Eric (Holoman) and the ownership group and what they’re saying, where they want our program to be, where they want this organization to go.”
Holoman, the team’s governor and managing partner, called Roberts “an outstanding coach and leader.”
“We are thrilled to bring her decades of winning coaching experience to our organization,” Holoman said in a statement. “Through our comprehensive international search, Lynne’s modern view of basketball, her communication skills, and ability to build relationships made her the right choice for the role.”
General manager Reagan Pebley said the team conducted an “exhaustive … global search” for a coach and “I’ve racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles.”
“When Eric and I set out to identify the pillars that we were looking for in the head coach, we were very, very clear,” Pebley said. “There were three main things. We wanted a smart basketball mind that saw the game in a forward thinking way. We wanted somebody that was a developer, a developer of a program, a developer of people, a developer of skill. And when I say develop, I mean more nurturer.
“That means you have to be a great leader. So that was the third thing we were really looking for, was just an excellent leader, somebody who was transformational, not just to an offense and a defense, but to people, to a community. So with Lynne, I say check, check, check on all of those.”
For the past three seasons, Utah led NCAA Division I in 3-point shots, was second in overall offensive rating and third in effective field goal percentage. In the 2023-24 season, 95% of the Utes’ shots were either 3-point shots, at the rim or in free throw lane.
Roberts began her coaching career in 1997 as a student assistant at Seattle Pacific immediately after concluding her playing career with the Falcons, while pursuing a master’s degree in athletic administration. She remained on their staff as an assistant coach after receiving her master’s degree in 2000.
She was the coach at Chico State from 2002 through 2006, guiding the Wildcats to an 86-31 record and berths in the NCAA Division II tournament each season, including reaching the Sweet 16 and Final Four her final two seasons.
Roberts became a Division I coach for the first time in 2006 when she was hired by Pacific. The Tigers had losing records in each of her first five seasons, but winning records in each of her last four, reaching the Women’s National Invitation Tournament each time.
Roberts was selected as the Big West Coach of the Year for the 2012-13 season, when Pacific won the conference’s regular-season championship and was 27-8 after going 18-14 the previous season. Her career record at Pacific was 135-144.
Miller was 25-55 in his two seasons as the Sparks’ coach. He succeeded Derek Fisher, who was fired after the team started the 2022 season with a 5-7 record. Fred Williams coached the team to a 8-16 record as interim coach for the remainder of that season.