Subscribe to Full Court PressSparks Name Gillom Head Coach; Lynx Tap Detroit’s Cheryl Reeve
Photo Caption: In and Out—Jennifer Gillom (left) is out at Minnesota after a 14-20 coaching debut with the Lynx last season. But she’s in with L.A., as the Sparks announced the Hall of Famer would become the franchise’s eighth head coach. Cheryl Reeve (right) is out of Detroit which has now closed its doors and moved to Tulsa. She’s also out of L.A., who reportedly passed her over for their head coaching job despite 21 years of coaching experience. But she’s in with the Lynx, who gave her Gillom’s former head coaching job with plenty of encouragement from Reeve’s mentor Bill Laimbeer, now an assistant with the Timberwolves.
Photo Credit: Courtesy WNBA Media Central
By Lee Michaelson
Publisher
The Los Angeles Sparks have named Jennifer Gillom as their new head coach, succeeding Michael Cooper who left to take the reins at the University of Southern California, the team announced Monday. Meanwhile, Minnesota has hired former Detroit Shock general manager and assistant coach Cheryl Reeve to fill Gillom’s former job at the coaching helm of the Lynx, that team announced last week.
Gillom, who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year, starred at the University of Mississippi under Van Chancellor who later became the first coach of the Houston Comets. A Kodak All-American, Gillom is the second all-time scoring leader at Ole Miss, her 2,186 career points second only to her sister Peggie.
After graduation, Gillom played professionally overseas, primarily in Italy, with stints in Greece, Spain and Turkey. Gillom then went on to a seven-year career as a player in the WNBA. Her best years came early in that career, with Gillom reaching her career-high in 1998, when she finished with an average of 20.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Though most of her career was spent with the Phoenix Mercury, she played her final season, 2003, with the Sparks. Unfortunately, that year was one of decline, as Gillom retired with a career average that had dropped to 13.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
“I am extremely excited to return to the city of Los Angeles and begin this new journey as head coach of the Sparks,” said Gillom. “This is a storied franchise with a championship caliber team. I look forward to being part of the future success and am eager to continue building the Sparks legacy.”
Gillom won five gold medals, including a gold from the 1988 Olympics, and one silver as a player for USA Basketball, and was named the 1985 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year. In addition to her ‘88 Olympic gold, she owns golds from the 1986 and 2002 World Championships, and took golds at the 1987 Pan American Games and the 1986 Goodwill Games; her silver came from the 1986 World University Games.
Gillom was tapped this summer to serve as an assistant to storied coach Geno Auriemma, who is heading the 2010 Women’s World Championship and 2012 London Olympics teams.
Gillom began her coaching career in 2004 with the girls’ basketball team at Xavier College Preparatory, an all-girls Catholic high school in Phoenix, Arizona, where she compiled a 130-25 record in five seasons. Under her leadership, her high school Gators have annually advanced to the state tournament for the past four years, and Gillom has received regional coach-of-the-year honors in each of those years.
But her coaching experience in the pros is limited to say the least. Gillom served as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx in 2008. She was elevated to the position of interim head coach for the Lynx last year after Don Zierden abruptly resigned to join Flip Saunders’ staff with the NBA’s Washington Wizards three days before the start of the season.
The Lynx got off to a strong start under Gillom’s tutelage, and were 4-1 when marquee player Seimone Augustus went down to a season-ending ACL tear on June 17 just six games into the season. The Lynx held on for the next two weeks, pulling out three more wins against two additional losses in the month of June, but without Augustus, Minnesota soon unraveled, going on a six-game losing streak and finishing a disappointing 14-20.
Perhaps as a result of that shaky head coaching debut, Minnesota bypassed Gillom in favor of former Detroit assistant coach and general manager Cheryl Reeve. The Lynx formally announced Reeve’s appointment as head coach last week, though the move has been rumored for weeks now.
Two more disparate resumes would be difficult to imagine. Reeve has 21 years of coaching experience, including five years as an assistant coach at George Washington, and five years as head coach at Indiana State from 1995-2000, where she led the team to its first postseason appearance in 20 years at the culmination of the 1998-99 season. Reeve has spent nine years in the WNBA as an assistant to various teams, launching her her coaching career in the pros in 2001 as an assistant to Anne Donovan with the Charlotte Sting. In Reeve’s first year with the team, the Sting improved to 18-14 from the previous year’s record of 8-24, and advanced to the WNBA Finals appearance. The following year, the Sting repeated their 18-14 record, and made another post-season appearance.
After Donovan left the Sting at the end of 2002 to become head coach of the Seattle Storm, Reeve moved to the Cleveland Rockers, apprenticing under Dan Hughes. The Rockers also advanced to the playoffs that year, but the ownership pulled the plug on the franchise at the end of the season. Reeve returned to the Sting staff, again as an assistant, for the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
From 2006-2009, Reeve served as assistant coach of the Detroit Shock under Bill Laimbeer, whom she helped guide the Shock to their 2006 and 2008 WNBA championships. Last year, after Laimbeer’s departure, Reeve served as an assistant on the sidelines to Rick Mahorn, while at the same time assuming Laimbeer’s duties as the Shock’s general manager. Laimbeer, who is now an assistant with the Minnesota Timberwolves, is said to have given Reeve a glowing recommendation for the Lynx head coaching job.
Reeve played at LaSalle in the 1980s, and a graduate position at LaSalle was her first coaching position. But Reeve never played professional ball.
Sparks’ GM Penny Toler spun Gillom’s comparative lack of coaching experience as an advantage, pointing out that many former NBA players have been hired on as WNBA coaches despite little or no head coaching experience and arguing that there was no reason why a WNBA player of Gillom’s stature shouldn’t be given the same opportunity.
In thinking about who should replace Cooper, she said one word kept popping into her head: “‘Fresh,’” said Toler. “Something totally different, something new and out of the comfort zone. Somebody fresh. .. We’re about to go into a new era (without Cooper and cornerstone player Lisa Leslie, who retired at the end of last season). It’s a different ballgame, let’s get something fresh.”
Toler, who has been known for her penchant for bringing the league’s superstars to L.A. in the waning years of their careers, was drawn to Gillom’s passion for the game, as well as what she called her “instant credibility” with the players.
In selecting Gillom, the Sparks bypassed not only Reeve (who was scooped up by the Lynx before L.A. made its announcement), but also Marianne Stanley, a highly experienced college and pro coach who served as an assistant to Cooper last season and will be leaving the team after being snubbed for the head coaching job; John Whisenant, the coach and general manager of the now-defunct Sacramento Monarchs, who led that team to a WNBA championship and multiple playoff appearances; former Piston bad boy Rick Mahorn, who served alongside Reeve as an assistant to Laimbeer and went on to coach the team last year, taking them to the Eastern Conference championships despite multiple player injuries; and Louisiana Tech coach and former WNBA star Teresa Weatherspoon, among others said to have had their hats in the ring.
Indeed, Toler told reporters she even considered taking the job herself, but decided that the team would be better served by bringing in a new face from the outside.
| Photo Caption: It would be hard to imagine a more genuinely nice and decent person than Jennifer Gillom, a Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer who was affectionately known to players and fans as “Grandmama” as she played into her 39th year. But despite her popularity and achievements as a player, Gillom has the least impressive coaching resume of any of the five coaches who were believed to have been top contenders for the job. “Do I know everything?” asked Gillom rhetorically. “No. No one does. But I know these players. I know my passion. I know I’m going to work hard. To me, those are the qualities you need to win. It’s not always about the Xs and Os all the time. I know the game. Just because I haven’t coached at this level a long time, I’ve played professionally for 17 years and had success at every level. I’m not fearful, I’m ready for the challenge and I’m ready to get started.” |  |
| Photo Credit: Courtesy USA Basketball |
Gillom said she plans to bring back a fast-paced running game to the Sparks, who have often been content to play a half-court game over the past few years. On the face of it, she has plenty of talent with which to work.
But despite the presence of five Olympians on the team last season, the Sparks finished a disappointing 21-19, losing to the Phoenix Mercury, who went on to win the title, in the Western Conference finals.
Now Leslie has retired, and as Gillom acknowledged, she “is going to be very hard to replace.” Tina Thompson has yet to say whether she plans to return for another season. DeLisha Milton-Jones seemed eager to return, but is certainly not getting any younger. Whether Kristi Harrower, the team’s fifth Olympian, will return next season or stay home to help the Australian National Team prepare for the World Championships is an open question. And with Harrower or without her, the Sparks have yet to resolve their point guard problems.
Of course, there’s Candace Parker, who, as Gillom pointed out, “is the new face of the franchise, is the caliber of player you would want to start a new era with.”
“That’s what I’m looking forward to the most,” said Gillom, who has a preexisting relationship with Parker due to their Team USA connection. But word is circulating of an impending shoulder surgery for Parker, that would have to be sandwiched between the end of the European season and the World Championships next fall. Should Parker decide to proceed, it could crater any hopes for the Sparks next year.
By comparison, Reeve may have gotten the team with the greater potential. Augustus, whose scoring marks in the six games in which she played last year endured at the top of the leaderboard for the remainder of the season, will return this season, alongside Candice Wiggins, Nicky Anosike, and Charde Houston, who established herself as an All-Star quality post player last year. The Lynx just picked up Rebekkah Brunson in the Monarchs’ dispersal draft; they have 6-5 center Quanitra Hollingsworth and UConn guard Renee Montgomery, who have solid potential though they didn’t set any records as rookies last year; and they have the first and third overall picks in this year’s draft. That’s a lot for any coach to build upon.
Originally published Tue, December 15, 2009
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