As the season winds down for the Los Angeles Sparks, there’s no question that the team isn’t where it thought it would be. But the season is retaining its fanfare until the last minute: the Sparks hosted the 30th season celebration on June 21, retired DeLisha Milton Jones‘ jersey on July 28, and on September 20, Lisa Leslie became the first female athlete to have a statue outside Crypto.com Arena.
On Sunday, Nneka Ogwumike notched her 8,000th career point, putting her in the company of only DeWanna Bonner, Tina Charles and Diana Taurasi. On Thursday, Ogwumike will play her final game not only as a Spark, but in the WNBA, closing out an illustrious career that spans nearly every category in the record book.
With no potential for playoffs, questions about coaching staff status, a star player departure mid-season and a brand new GM, there’s zero pressure on the Sparks to do anything but get better, show individual player value for next season and end Ogwumike’s career on a strong note. But the story of these final weeks has become equally about milestones and fanfare as the surprise of who’s on the floor while they happen.
In the span of two days over the past week, two different Sparks players have scored their first WNBA points: Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda on September 20, and Shyanne Sellers on September 17. At multiple points since the FIBA break, head coach Lynne Roberts has played lineups composed of four rookies and a veteran. At one point in the Sparks’ win over Portland on Sunday, the five players on the floor (Chance Gray, Mwenentanda, Jihyun Park, Monique Akoa Makani and Tonie Morgan) combined for less than six years of experience.
The Sparks’ bench went crazy for every play, standing excitedly for each attempted shot and jumping out of their seats in celebration for Morgan’s blocked shot with 1:19 left in the first quarter. That defensive play, along with threes from Morgan and Gray, helped the Sparks end the first quarter with their lead. On paper, none of it matters. And if you’d told most people in May these would be the lineups rolled out from the Sparks in September, confusion wouldn’t have been a strong enough word.
But Roberts has spent these final weeks acting less like a coach chasing wins and more like a development director building a portfolio. The result is that players like Sellers, Morgan, Mwenentanda, Gray and Park are ending the season playing extended minutes against WNBA competition. That bodes well — the Sparks get to game-test potential contenders for bench spots next year. And these players get an entirely low-pressure situation in which to develop, add some buckets to their resume, and perhaps most importantly, get some game film. With the number of rookies and deep bench players the Sparks have cycled through in the back half of the season, they’re effectively holding open tryouts.
“As an athlete, as a coach, you’re programmed winning [equals] good, losing [equals] bad, right, and all the things that go with it, and it’s hard to shed that. It’s hard to, but it is a reminder of like we’ve got a really young group, and one of the best to ever put on a uniform around those guys,” Roberts said before the Portland game, referring to Ogwumike.
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“My job right now is to encourage them and get them to understand what we’re trying to do and play the right way,” she continued. “But sometimes when there isn’t the pressure of winning, it’s a little easier to do that. But it’s really hard for all of us who are in this because we’re competitive to a fault to turn that off. But that’s the-it’s a razor-thin edge. I’m still searching for it, but I will find it.”
These comments followed remarks Roberts made ahead of the Dallas game on Thursday, when she noted “I want to coach to win, compete to win, game plan to win. But you’re right, we do need to get the younger guys out there. But I think you can do both. I think you can do both. I think two things can be true — you can coach to win, play to win, and also play some of your younger guys and give them some experience and see what you got.”
Mwenentanda played 20 minutes on Sunday, and while they weren’t particularly effective — she had 3 turnovers and shot 1-5 from the floor — this was more than the total combined minutes she’s played so far in her WNBA career so far (13). A rookie doesn’t learn what her shot looks like against WNBA length by watching from the bench.
And Morgan isn’t taking the opportunity for granted.
“It’s an amazing opportunity especially for rookies like myself to play maybe 15, 20 minutes a game, because you know that’s typically not common. So just taking advantage of the opportunity that presented to us has been a big thing, and then utilizing Nneka for her wisdom with our last season with her, and just just letting her fill us with everything she has,” Morgan told The IX Sports prior to Sunday’s matchup.
When asked about what impact the lack of pressure to win has on her, Morgan said it really feels like an opportunity to get better for next season. She acknowledged that she’s been empowered to get to know her teammates better on and off the court, and that she feels this is an opportunity to send Nneka out surrounded by effort and hard work. “Just play hard,” Morgan says. “Play how we want to play.”
Aaliyah Nye, who joined the Sparks roster in late August after being waived by the Atlanta Dream, noted that prior to her six-point game on September 17, she was empowered by her coach to “just go out there and shoot it.” Gray has frequently echoed that sentiment, and had her career-high 11 points on Sunday against Portland.
The Sparks veterans are embracing their youth consistently, in a season where they could have mailed it in, thrown in the towel, or any combination of other cliche phrases. It’s demonstrated in how they share the ball on the court, the recent trip they all took to Universal Studios on an off-day (where Morgan told The IX Sports she got to make recommendations as the local Floridian). Erica Wheeler picked up a technical while watching from the sideline, up by over 20 points, as she cheered on her rookies as they worked through possessions. Wheeler and Emma Cannon have made a habit of walking all the way up to the scorer’s table just to talk to Sellers or Morgan in the middle of the game.
Cannon, who has played more of an assistant coach role this season for many of her teammates, sitting in the first seat on the bench and being touted repeatedly as an excellent teammate, got starting spot on Sunday in the absence of Dearica Hamby and Cameron Brink, both out with injury. She almost immediately hit a three and ended the first half with 10 points, tying her season high. She led by example, demonstrating effort and a ready attitude that paid off.
“The rookies and the newbies, they’re all my little babies. And it’s something about just competing every day and showing up and putting your best foot forward. And that’s something that I’ve been trying to teach them and tell them that you’re not going to get all the minutes, but you have to be ready when your number is called,” Emma Cannon told reporters on Sunday.
“So you definitely go out there every day and you practice and you play like you are a starter, so that when your number is called, you go in and you compete and you do the best you can do,” she continued. “I’m proud of them. This is just a stepping stone for them. This is their foundation. They’re just getting their feet wet. So I’m excited for their future.”
Commentary on Ogwumike’s career and leadership can — and will — fill books. Game aside, her historical stint as President of the WNBPA will impact how future players are treated in the league forever. On a Sparks team that will miss the playoffs again, she’s not having the triumphant on-court final season she may have wanted. But she’s kept her head high, she’s demonstrated composure in the face of a tumultuous Sparks season and she is not walking away thinking about her own numbers. True to herself, she’s leaving behind a locker room where she’s made room for players who’ll be wearing this jersey long after she isn’t.
When asked about what it feels like to experience players’ “firsts” as she closes out her final games, Ogwumike talked about setting a precedent, “so that there’s some type of muscle memory for how they approach the game.”
“I think right now I’m really spending a lot of my time trying to pour into Cam [Brink] as well,” she continued. “I really do think that she’s the future of the league. […] I’m happy to be able to leave whatever I can before I throw my feet up.”
Roberts echoed Ogwumike’s goal, noting how well she’s been able to “pour in” to the youth on the roster. Separately, she also noted that “the respect everybody has for Nneka, and wanting to send her out the right way, play the right way, play together, has been cool.”
“We’re doing it for ourselves, but we’re also doing it for Nneka,” Morgan told The IX Sports about finishing the season with high effort.
None of this investment in potential fixes a season with no playoff path, a coaching staff whose future is unresolved, or a roster with a ton of question marks going into next year. But for a team with nothing left to play for in the standings, the Sparks are playing for proof of what their young players can become, and confirmation that the veterans in that locker room, Ogwumike included, are the leaders they’ve been made out to be.
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