LOS ANGELES — Derek Fisher and the Sparks have mutually agreed to part ways after a disappointing 5-7 start to the season, the team announced Tuesday, relieving him of head coach and general manager duties. Fisher’s less than four-year tenure ends with 54-46 overall record and a 1-4 postseason mark.
Assistant coach Fred Williams will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Williams has already been hired as the associate head coach of the Auburn women’s basketball team, a role he accepted last month. The Sparks play next on Saturday against the Las Vegas Aces at Crypto.com Arena.
“After a thorough evaluation of the state of our team, the Sparks and GM/Head Coach Derek Fisher have agreed to part ways,” managing partner Eric Holoman said in the team’s statement. “On behalf of our ownership group, I want to thank Derek for his efforts and contributions to the Sparks franchise. We wish him the best moving forward. I have full confidence in Fred Williams to step into the role of interim head coach, bringing a wealth of experience leading WNBA teams.”
Hoping to rebound from the franchise’s first time missing the postseason season since 2011, Fisher assembled a talented roster in his capacity as general manager. With new stars such as center Liz Cambage and point guard Jordin Canada joining 11-year veteran forward Nneka Ogwumike, the Sparks were one of the more intriguing teams in the league, especially after starting the season with back-to-back road wins.
The bright start quickly faded into a five-game losing streak made more difficult by the team’s brutal early season schedule. The Sparks had eight of their first 11 games on the road and never had more than two consecutive days without a game in May. The busy calendar limited valuable practice time that the team could have used to build its chemistry with eight new players, but Fisher took solace that four of the team’s first six losses came by a combined 13 points as a sign that things could turn around.
With their first extended practice opportunity of the season, the Sparks lost 81-74 to the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday.
Now the five-time NBA champion has been dismissed from his second head coaching job. The former Lakers point guard was dismissed in the middle of his second season with the New York Knicks in 2016 with a 40-96 record.
Fisher was hired by the Sparks in 2018, replacing Brian Agler, who resigned after four seasons. Since Agler led the team to the 2016 championship, the Sparks have gradually faded from WNBA prominence. They came one win away from repeating as champions in 2017 — losing to the Minnesota Lynx in five games in the Finals — then lost in the second round of playoffs in 2018.
While Fisher enjoyed regular-season success in his first two seasons — his 37-19 record gave him the second-most regular-season wins during the period behind only Las Vegas’ Bill Laimbeer — the biggest postseason highlight of Fisher’s Sparks tenure might be when he benched star Candace Parker in Game 3 of the 2019 WNBA semifinals. As Connecticut swept the Sparks out of the playoffs, Parker fumed on the bench after playing only 11 minutes in the final game.
The fraught relationship between the two-time WNBA most valuable player and her coach loomed over Fisher’s first offseason as general manager when Parker and point guard Chelsea Gray were both unrestricted free agents. When Fisher added general manager responsibilities to his head coaching role in 2021, it was meant to bring stability to a franchise that had been relying on a mix of interim tags and assistants to fill in after former general manager Penny Toler was fired in October 2019 for using a racial slur in the locker room. The new role didn’t help as Parker and Gray both left as free agents.
While the Sparks missed the playoffs last year, Parker led her hometown Chicago Sky to their first WNBA championship.
