My friend Rebecca — a stalwart Liberty supporter — was first to tell me that WNBA Los Angeles hired Lynne Roberts as their head coach.
(My question is “Did Golden State have the chance to hire Coach, and if so, how did they fuck that up?”. Your question might be “Why hire Roberts?”, and one answer to that is: The Sparks are a last-place team, and Coach has a 3-for-3 record turning last-place teams into league champions.)
The first thing Rebecca said — that is, the subject line of her email — was “well, this might be awkward”. Rebecca knows how long I’ve been on Coach Roberts’ best, covering her teams through thick and thin, and she also knows that the Valkyries have been my team since the expansion deal was announced.
Really, I don’t know what to do. My thought today is that when Los Angeles visits Golden State on opening night, I wear Utah gear. Then if Golden State selects Alissa Pili from Minnesota in today’s expansion draft, I’m covered on both sides.
There are already difficulties I couldn’t’ve imagined. For instance, I just had the thought: What if WE target players who fit Roberts’ style?I shook my head. Wait a second. The Valkyries are drafting for Coach Nakase’s team, not Coach Roberts’ team. Both teams can’t be “we”, but that’s the point. Coach Rob’s teams have always been “us”, and it’s — at least — hypocritical to support her Sparks while I’m wearing all this Valkyries gear.
People who don’t get sports fandom think this is not a problem, and is pretty dumb. I imagine even if one *does* get it, it’s pretty dumb.
If it turns out that GSV could have hired Roberts — and didn’t — I’ll have no qualms about rooting for Los Angeles to kick Golden State’s butt.