For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Sparks have come to the El Camino College Gymnasium to hold their training camp before the 2024 WNBA season.
On day three of training camp, the Sparks had their official Media Day event that included a press conference, player interviews with various media outlets and photoshoots for content use and social media for the upcoming season.
Various professional and collegiate media outlets, including KTLA5 and Cal State Northridge, came to El Camino to get the chance to talk to the Sparks, players, coaches and front office.
The Sparks have struggled to make major waves the past three years, finishing one game out of the eighth playoff spot last year with a 17-23 record.
This marked the third straight year of the Sparks not qualifying for the playoffs after recently retired WNBA player Candace Parker left the team in 2021.
Parker was drafted by the Sparks with the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft and helped win the organization’s third championship in 2016.
The Sparks are optimistic about the season with new additions to the team who are two of the Top 5 overall picks in the 2024 WNBA draft on April 15.
No. 2 pick Cameron Brink and No. 4 pick Rickea Jackson both look to bring some needed youthful energy to the team.
Expectations are high for Brink, the 6-foot-4 rookie out of Stanford University, coming in as the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and the recipient of the Lisa Leslie Award, which is given to the best women’s basketball center in the NCAA.
“I bring defense [to this team]… It’s a different defensive philosophy than what I’m used to [in college] but I love it already and I love that it allows me to be active,” Brink said.
The Union asked Brink during the press conference what she could do to raise her already well-rounded game.
“To improve, I think I can be better on the perimeter on offense and defense, but also improving my three-ball,” Brink said.
Jackson, the 6-foot-2 forward out of the University of Tennessee , has felt the pressure and the love coming into camp after averaging 20.2 points a game in her last year with the Tennessee Volunteers.
She led the Southeastern Conference in scoring and carded the ninth-best single-season points average in Volunteers women’s basketball history.
“Coming in [as a rookie], it’s a lot of new information, so the vets coming over out of their way [to help], they don’t have to to help us but that just goes to show how much they want us here,” Jackson said.
Second-year Sparks coach Curt Miller emphasized the new era the team was entering and his offense philosophy during his presser.
“We’re not going to play much through one person, just like our shared leadership approach,” Miller said. “We will be at our best with equal opportunity and we were better when we had balance as a team, so that’s the ultimate goal.”
Miller said the team will play with a little more tempo and a more modernized style; a five-out offense on the perimeter. “But ultimately I am a pick-and-roll coach,” Miller said.
The Sparks changed up its front office this offseason, hiring first-time general manager Raegan Pebley to help navigate the team’s future. Pebley played in the WNBA from 1997-1998 and had a successful 21-year NCAA coaching career for Utah State, Fresno State and TCU.
“We want to build a core four, have our Top 6 be arguably starters on other teams in this league,” Miller said.
Pebley said the Sparks want players to have high EQ, IQ, great culture, and scheme that fits the system Miller is building.
“We believe all those things [including the team’s buy-in] will lead us to a WNBA championship, but championships are not built overnight, it takes time,” Pebley said.
