To say the 2024 WNBA season was a tough one for the Los Angeles Sparks would be an understatement. The Sparks struggled to find wins while being hit with a wave of absences and injuries. It was a season unlike anything Sparks head coach Curt Miller has seen during his ten-year WNBA coaching career.
But it was also one of the most enjoyable years of Miller’s career. Despite the team finishing with a record of 8-32 and missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, Miller throughly enjoyed coaching this group.
“I’ve been in a lot of winning locker rooms that weren’t near as fun as what this locker room is. And that’s not coach speak. That’s not an exaggeration,” Curt Miller said. “I just really enjoyed this group through even the frustrations and the adversity of this year.”
And there certainly was frustration and adversity this season. The Sparks did manage to finish the season on a high note with a 68-51 win against the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday. But the Sparks had come into the game on an eight-game losing streak, tied for their longest this year.
They had four players out to finish the season in Cameron Brink (ACL injury), Aari McDonald (ankle injury), Layshia Clarendon (mental health reasons) and Lexie Brown (Crohn’s). The Sparks had two players on hardship contracts in Odyssey Sims and Crystal Dangerfield who had to end the year with the team.
“I love the build, I know that there’s speed bumps in the builds. This year was filled with adversity of injuries and illnesses. The losses compiling was something I’m not used to,” Miller said. “So learning and growing through that adversity and how to come to work the next day was a still a growth mindset for this team. I had multiple new staff members and I had fun educating and teaching them how we wanted to play, and in turn they could turn around and then educate and teach our players.”
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