by Malcolm Butler
Christie Sides is in the majority.
Usually that is a good thing. Usually.
But on Sunday, Sides became one of the seven WNBA head coaches (out of 12 teams) that have been fired during the off-season.
The former Louisiana Tech player and assistant coach who has spent her entire career coaching the game on the collegiate and professional (both WNBA and overseas) levels recently took the Indiana Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016.
In just her second full season with the franchise, Sides led the Fever to a 20-20 record and the No. 6 seed in the WNBA playoffs. Indiana dropped its best of three series 2-0 against the Connecticut Sun with both games played on the road.
When Sides inherited the the job towards the tail end of the 2022 season, Indiana was the league’s cellar dwellers. They were bad. 5-31 bad.
In Sides first year in Indiana, she led them to an eight-win improvement as they posted a 13-27 mark. Then this year, a 7-win improvement. So in two years, she increased the franchises win total of 5 to 20.
That’s 400 percent win growth in two years. I think any of us would love that in our mutual fund.
And her thank you from the Fever? A pink slip.
“We are incredibly thankful to Coach Sides for embracing the challenge of leading us through an integral transition period over the last two seasons, while also positioning us well for future growth,” said Fever President of Basketball Operations Kelly Krauskopf in a statement on the Fever’s website.
“While decisions like these are never easy, it is also imperative that we remain bold and assertive in the pursuit of our goals, which includes maximizing our talent and bringing another WNBA championship back to Indiana. Coach Sides was an incredible representative of the Fever and our community, and we wish her nothing but success in the future.”
What a load of horse manure, Kelly.
Sides not only led the franchise to a pretty impressive turnaround in two years but she had to manage the circus and hoopla that came with drafting women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark this year.
I read plenty of social media comments from all the fan “experts” throughout the season, some calling for Sides job due to the fact she wasn’t “utilizing” Clark to her fullest potential. Why? Well from what I could tell because she was actually coaching her and had expectations for the rookie phenom.
I would say Sides way worked.
It’s a far cry from the NCAA’s Iowa Hawkeyes to the WNBA ranks, even for Clark. I remember Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird both talking on TV during last year’s NCAA title game about how Clark was going to have quite the learning curve once she stepped foot on the floor with other more experienced professionals.
Clark proved she more than belonged, capturing the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. But it didn’t happen without some hiccups at times.
I never read or saw any type of statement from Clark about Sides during the year. She was never publicly critical of her head coach that I ever saw so I don’t know their relationship.
What I do know is that the league’s front offices have fired seven of its 12 head coaches, including coaches from three franchises that made the WNBA playoffs. Sure makes you scratch your head.
I don’t watch the WNBA like I once did when numerous Louisiana Tech players were gracing the floors. But I have known Christie Sides since she was a player for the Lady Techsters in the late 1990s. She is a great coach and a better person.
In my opinion front offices have lost their way at times in this day and age of athletics, both college and professional. Sure. Sometimes coaches need to be fired for different reasons.
But to fire a coach after two years that quadrupled a franchises win total and that led the franchise to its first postseason appearance in almost a decade … welp, the Fever front office deserve what they get if the decision goes south.
Is it bad I’m hoping for regression?
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