Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull spoke on Christie Sides’ firing in on Monday.
“It’s hard. In this profession, things are so fluid,” Hull told the Ringer’s Seerat Sohi on the latest episode of The Ringer WNBA show. “You never know what to expect, you never get comfortable. Heading into next year, this will be my fourth head coach in four years.”
Since Hull was drafted by the Fever in 2022, the franchise has been lead by three coaches — Marianne Stanley, Carlos Knox, and, most recently Christie Sides. Hull played under Sides for two seasons, in which the Fever accrued a 33-37 record.
“It’s a crazy job. I’m really sad for Christie; I think she’s a great person and a great leader,” Hull said. “I’m excited to see what she does in the future, and excited about where our new coach will take us.”
In the just over a month, seven WNBA coaches have departed their franchise: Curt Miller (Los Angeles Sparks), Teresa Weatherspoon (Chicago Sky), Tanisha Wright (Atlanta Dream), Latricia Trammell (Dallas Wings), Eric Thibault (Washington Mystics), Christie Sides (Indiana Fever) and Stephanie White (Connecticut Sun).
In addition, the Las Vegas Aces, Wings, and Mystics all now have general manager vacancies, with a very real possibility that additional firings are in the works.
“It’s unfortunate,” Hull said. “Just looking at the league — seven new head coaches, that’s an insane statistic. Teams are going to look so different. They’re going to play different. It’s an exciting future for the league, but it’s sad to see some eras are ending.”
At the moment, it’s not yet clear if a lot of the same coaches will be reshuffled to new franchises — or if a new crop of coaches will emerge. Stephanie White has been linked to Indiana, while who other teams might hire remains to be seen.
As it currently stands, the only returning WNBA coaches are Becky Hammon (Las Vegas Aces), Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota Lynx), Nate Tibbetts (Phoenix Mercury), Sandy Brondello (New York Liberty), and Noelle Quinn (Seattle Storm). Hammon, Reeve, and Brondello have all won multiple WNBA championships. Tibbetts just finished his first season in Mercury after more than a decade as an NBA assistant, while Quinn has been head coach of the Storm for four seasons after a long WNBA playing career.
There’s an outstanding question about whether a new crop of potential coaches might come from college, the NBA or other sources. It’s possible that the majority of the league’s fired coaches will simply find themselves with a different franchise, but it’s also possible that the league will be infused with a new influx of talent. The status of coaching in the WNBA has undoubtedly been elevated over the past few years.
“I think it’s moving in a good direction, because it’s more competitive and there’s more eyes on it, the pool of coaches that we can choose from can only get bigger and bigger,” Hull said. “We’re going to have great coaches coming up, and just excited to see what those eras look like. It’s unpredictable at this point, but I’m excited to see what it will look like a year from now.”
