Mercury shoot to revive their winning culture
“It’s super exciting. It’s a great time to be involved with women’s sports in general, not only just our league, but I just want to play a part and help pushing this forward.”
Nate Tibbetts
Mercury coach
Women’s basketball is on the rise and the Phoenix Mercury hope to rise with it in the 2024 WNBA season after their league-worst record last year (9-31).
“We’ve got a great group of individual players, but over the course of this journey together we need to figure it out, our strengths, our weaknesses,” coach Nate Tibbetts said during the Mercury’s media availability on April 28.
“That’s the fun part of coaching. That’s the fun part of being on a team is getting the group to get a common goal.”
Tibbetts replaced interim coach Nikki Blue in October. Blue was promoted last June from being one of the team’s assistant coaches under Vanessa Nygaard, who was fired after just over one season.
The Mercury’s first preseason game is at the Seattle Storm on Tuesday and then they host the Los Angeles Sparks on May 10. Training camp lasts until their season opener at the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces on May 14.
“I’m really excited to get going. It’s been a long off-season from when I first came here, but thankfully some of our veterans have been in town,” Tibbetts said about preparing for the season with Mercury players in Phoenix.
Tibbetts said he spent time with the team’s top players Diana Taurasi, Brittany Griner, Sophie Cunningham, and rookie Christyn Williams before training camp.
“I have a lot of respect for that because you don’t see a lot of head coaches doing that,” Williams said. “I feel like he’s just taking the time to really get to know his players and he’s setting the bar high. He has standards for our team and I think everybody has bought into it.”
Tibbetts transitioned from the NBA as an Orlando Magic assistant coach the past three years. His additional past experience was with the Portland Trail Blazers from 2013 to 2021, and the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011 to 2013.
The Mercury’s owner Mat Ishbia made Tibbetts the highest-paid coach in league history, which surpassed Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon’s $1 million salary. Tibbetts doesn’t have head coaching experience, and that drew backlash on social media for perceived sexism as a male getting the job over Blue, who was also a first-time head coach.
“I hate men. I don’t know how they hired him,” Taurasi joked about Tibbetts. She continued in praise of him, “That’s just all hot smoke. The man is a coach. That’s what he does for his whole life.
“He coached at the highest level in the NBA, and to have an opportunity to be around him for the past four or five months, it’s been refreshing. … I’m just really excited for us and our fans.”
Two of the Mercury’s new veteran guards in Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud, backup point guard Sug Sutton, and rookie Charisma Osborne agreed that Tibbetts’ energy, or “heat” as he calls it, has been infectious for them.
His coaching staff even participates in the players’ drills, plus implements a large cache of schemes in its offensive and defensive systems to foster the team’s camaraderie.
“For him to come to the NBA and meet us (in the WNBA) where we’re at and see our talent and see our skill, he’s thrilled to be with us, too. He’s very personable,” Cunningham said. “He’s not messing around, though. He means business, and let me tell you this is the best training camp I’ve ever been a part of. It’s the best off-season I’ve been a part of. He’s very intentional about what we’re doing, and we’re creating something special out here in Phoenix.”
Tibbetts makes the transition from the NBA to the WNBA as women’s basketball has become the center of attention in sports.
“It’s super exciting. It’s a great time to be involved with women’s sports in general, not only just our league, but I just want to play a part and help pushing this forward,” Tibbetts said. “All the work has been done before this. This is great momentum, and our team, our organization wants to help raise the level in every way that we can.”
Viewership ratings of the WNBA finals made it the league’s most-watched championship series in 20 years, per Statista.
The women’s college basketball Cleveland Final Four reached uncharted territory over the past year, reaching 13.8 million viewers, nearly 300% higher than 2022, eclipsing the Men’s Final Four numbers, according to ESPN.
“It’s about time,” Taurasi said about the sport’s rise.
The passion and fandom for women’s basketball have always been around in America. Not just in Europe and Asia where many of the top college players had to continue their pro careers before the WNBA launched in 1997.
Among the league’s 12 teams, and myriad of franchises such as the Houston Comets that won several titles then became defunct, Phoenix is among the original three alongside the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks.
It’s been 10 years since Phoenix won its third title, and raised those banners (2007, 2009, 2014) within a seven-year span. The later two were led by Taurasi and Griner.
“We understand each of our parts in winning, and all of our goals are just focused on bringing the organization back to the dynasty that it used to be,” Cloud said.
Cunningham, who’s one of the team’s core three players with Taurasi and Griner, Tibbetts in returning to their winning ways since their loss to Copper’s former team Chicago Sky in the 2021 finals.
“I’ve been here for five years, going on six, and I’ve had four head coaches already. The culture has been crazy,” Cunningham. “There really hasn’t been a culture, but there’s a culture now. It’s genuine. It’s good people. It’s people who work hard. We’re gonna win. It’s a winning culture, and it’s gonna be a challenging championship culture and I’m happy to be a part of it.”