Donovan a towering figure, on and off the court
UNCASVILLE — There was something surreal and undeniably sad about the moment. Pacing one bench was Mike Thibault of the Washington Mystics, the man who was replaced by Anne Donovan as coach of the Connecticut Sun. Pacing the other was Curt Miller, the man who replaced Donovan.
And now, squeezed between the two, as two WNBA teams raced the floor at Mohegan Sun Arena Wednesday night, was this horrible news that Anne Donovan was dead of heart failure at age 56.
“Shocked,” Thibault would say later. “Just heartbreaking.”
Thibault won more games than anyone in Sun franchise history. Over a decade, he won everything except a WNBA title and ultimately that’s why he was forced out in favor of Donovan before the 2013 season. The Sun players loved and respected Thibault so much that some of it carried into Donovan’s locker room. Not only didn’t Donovan produce a championship, the Sun suffered through three losing seasons before turning to Miller.
None of this would damage Thibault’s friendship
with Donovan, nor in the end should we in Connecticut allow it to take away from the magnificence of her basketball life. Anne Donovan, 6 feet, 8 inches, was a giant of the game in every way.
“A great, gentle giant,” said Tracy Claxton, who followed Donovan at Old Dominion and won a national championship of her own there in 1985.
As one of the pioneering post players in the women’s game, Donovan won that national title with ODU in 1980 in addition to winning two Olympic gold medals. She is the only coach to lead a team to a WNBA title and the Olympic gold medal. Anne Donovan was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995, a year before UConn won its first national title.
“I spent basically three and a half years of my life in our off-season traveling all over the world with her, world championships, tours in Russia, tour in Frances,” said Thibault, who assisted Donovan on the 2008 gold medal team in Beijing. “We did Normandy Beach. We had hikes in Spain and other places. A lot of late night
dinners in foreign countries with a lot of glasses of red wine.
“I know Anne took my place here, but she and I maintained a close relationship. People have to know what a great human being she was. She came from a big family. At every big event I was around with her, there was just a family tie, and always the coaching staff doing things together. Over the next few days, we’ll see how many friends she had. She had tons of them.”
The first time Claxton, who led Wilbur Cross High to three state titles, met Donovan was at tryouts for U.S. junior Olympic team in North Haven. It was 1978.
“She was the nicest person, you gravitated to her,” Claxton said. “I thought I was tall (at 6-2). I met her and I went, ‘Oh, my God.’ ”
The kid from Ridgewood, N.J., the star at Paramus Catholic, was recruited by everyone. Joe Paterno made a personal pitch on behalf of Penn State. She picked ODU, following in the footsteps of Nancy Lieberman. She would coach in college and pros, with five WNBA teams, collecting wins and friends. The Seattle Storm, with Sue Bird, won it all in 2004. There was the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, with its great collection of talent that included Bird, Diana Taura- si, Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings.
Thibault closed his eyes for a second after his Mystics had blown a 30-point lead yet managed to scramble to a victory over the Sun. He smiled for a moment, recounting how his son Eric, now a Mystic assistant, had turned 21 in Beijing and Donovan bought him drinks for his birthday.
“The gold medal game against Australia, you know you’re better than somebody but as coaches you agonize over every little thing,” Thibault said. “You don’t want to be the one that ends the streak. The relief we had blowing the game open, you saw Anne take this big, deep breath. USA Basketball was special to her.”
That history is why Sun CEO Mitchell Etess turned to Donovan in late 2012. It is not disrespectful to say it did not work out with the Sun.
“We saw someone who had won at every level as a player and coach,” Etess said. “We were trying to make a change to someone who had won championships and she had a history of winning championships. She was an icon.
“The time here wasn’t great on the basketball court, but Anne was wonderful to deal with. She’s a Hall of Famer and a Hall of
Fame person. This is a horrible thing.”
Donovan played professionally in Italy and Japan. Bill Tavares, Sun media and community relations manager, spoke to her only a week ago about a documentary being made on Japanese basketball. Last weekend, Donovan was in Knoxville, where her high school coach Rose Battaglia was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The news of her death was stunning.
Claxton found out Wednesday night from ODU teammate Marie Christian. She had played for two years at Kansas before transferring and did not play on the same team as Donovan. Yet both were part of that stretch of dominance, that a special part of ODU history.
“We are devastated,” Claxton said.
The last time Chiney Ogwumike saw Donovan was at the 2017 WNBA AllStar Game.
“I didn’t know she was going to be there,” Ogwumike said. “I ran up and gave her a big bearhug. She took a moment and said, ‘I’m so proud of you and your team. You have three All-Stars here.’ It meant a lot. She understood how hard we fought to get here.”
Ogwumike had picked up her phone at halftime and saw the headline. She was stunned. She went straight to Alyssa Thomas.
“A lot of people, especially in Connecticut, we didn’t appreciate her as much as we should,” Ogwumike said. “We were struggling as a team at the point she was a coach and she gave us a fierce mentality. Alyssa and I were rookies. She empowered us. The Alyssa you see who is so tough on the glass, Anne gave her confidence. She was there for me despite my injuries. Having that foundation was everything to me.”
This season the Sun have charged out to a great start and championship designs have returned to the franchise. Ogwumike said Don- ovan was on her team’s mind in the second half Wednesday. Who knows, she says, maybe it inspired the wildly emotional comeback. Jasmine Thomas was sure of this much. She will be forever thankful to the legend who brought her to Connecticut and give her the first chance to lead a professional team.
“We have lost a great pioneer for women’s basketball,” Curt Miller said. “But Anne Donovan’s legacy will live on.”
The sports world does not forget its giants.