Sylvia Fowles tapped into an elite list of coaches as the topic of her own coaching future came up more often amid her Naismith Hall of Fame induction year. She wanted to know the background to being a coach and what is required of an assistant. She wanted to be ready for it all.
Cheryl Reeve, her head coach during two WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, volleyed back a question of her own. Why, she asked when Fowles had made her decision, was she heading to the expansion Portland Fire when she could have joined any number of established WNBA franchises?
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“The beauty of it was it was more scary for me to choose Portland, which made me come to Portland,” Fowles told Yahoo Sports. “Because I’m like, if I’m afraid of it, I think I want to experience it.”
The Fire announced Fowles’ addition to the inaugural coaching staff on Monday, where she will work under head coach Alex Sarama and alongside assistant Brittni Donaldson. The team is set to debut in 2026, barring a lengthy work stoppage as the league and players union negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
Fowles retired in 2022 as the league’s all-time leading rebounder with two Finals MVPs, two championships, the 2017 league MVP and four Defensive Player of the Year awards. She was inducted as a first-ballot nominee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June and the Naismith in September.
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“When I first got out [of] the league and Minnesota was asking me to come back, I felt like I needed a place to debrief away from the game as a player,” Fowles said. “I always knew I would come back, because I just had so much that I wanted to teach the younger players. And once I got to the beginning of the year, the topic started coming up more about being a coach, and I wasn’t sure of what that looked like or what that required.”
Fowles told Yahoo Sports in June that while she always said no previously, Reeve raised the question every year since her retirement, telling the center, “If you’re ready, just give me a heads up.” As a deliberate person who doesn’t like to make mistakes or waste time, Fowles spoke often with coaches about the realities of the job. Most conversations were with Reeve and Lindsay Whalen, her former Lynx dynasty era teammate, who coaches on Reeve’s staff with former teammate Rebekkah Brunson.
She also spoke with Sandy Brondello, the newly named head coach of the expansion Toronto Tempo; Seattle Storm first-year head coach Sonia Raman; and her former positional coaches at LSU (Bob Starkey) and the Lynx (James Wade).
“I think I was open to the opportunity more because I felt more prepared,” Fowles said.
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Portland provided the best place for Fowles to “get my feet wet,” she said. Everyone, from the front office to the players they will eventually add, is new to the franchise. The Fire and Tempo will participate in an expansion draft, though it is unclear when that will be until the CBA is codified. The new deadline is Jan. 9; the union voted this week to authorize its executive committee to “call a strike when necessary.” If negotiations continued past Jan. 9, scheduling issues could arise.
“The expectation is going to be laid from Day 1 of what we need and how we are trying to run a team, and having no players kind of makes that a little bit more challenging,” Fowles said. “And in the aspect of, like, if I’m really going to do it, I want to start from scratch.”
Sarama, a former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant, took the Fire job in October with plans to implement the principles of CLA (Constraints-Led Approach), a player development system popular in Europe. He lacks experience in the women’s game, a void now filled by the addition of Fowles. Phoenix Mercury second-year head coach Nate Tibbetts also did not have WNBA experience and praised the help he had from WNBA champion Kristi Toliver on his staff to reach the Finals in October.
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“Most of our conversations just was about what my role would be, and how can I be a help [to] him and a connection between him and player and what that looks like,” Fowles said. “But I think my role is going to be a little diverse and a little bit of everything. I don’t think that he will be wanting me to work just with position as a post club coach. I know we talked about doing a little bit everything, learning how to do scout, learning how to do film, so I think I’ll be well diverse in a little bit of everything with Alex.”
