The last time I attended a Sparks game was the final home game of the season. Aside from the context of the game itself, there was something of a defeated feeling attached to the experience. Basically, I had spent most of the past two weeks clocking the WNBA season standings as if it was the stock market, hoping by some measure that certain teams would drop off just enough that Los Angeles would pull through. I even remember besmirching the name of The Fever at one point – which turned out to be a bit of a judgment error on my part. Even if I still remain an overall skeptic, Indiana’s post-season run came shockingly close to changing the course of Finals history. If their A-Team had been healthy, they would’ve stopped a dynasty from being cemented and giving A’ja Wilson her second year of being MVP without making it to the end of the line.
Long story short, The Sparks just couldn’t cover the spread enough to make the playoffs. It was a very slim margin, and one that came down to the penultimate game and circumstances that would make Howie Ratner smile. Even so, being a Sparks fan in the 2020s has been a real test, where the last time we made it to the post-season was also the year that Liz Cambage quit the league 7/8ths of the way through the season… and we still had Chennedy Carter and some coach switch-ups to go. To understand the enthusiasm of The Sparks in 2025 is to understand the pains of being a fan who isn’t just loyal, but attends games and invests in the culture. You see the value of teamwork in every stage of the game, where you see what the away team is doing and understand why they’re more successful. Even so, the rebuilding of a brand, especially when the larger banner is going through a renaissance, doesn’t happen overnight.
Anyway, I remain very optimistic about how 2025’s season ended. It was the biggest step up that they’ve had in at least three years, and the addition of Kelsey Plum was helping a lot. It could be that going to as many games as I have (avg. three per season since 2021) endears parts of the culture more to you. Even so, I was willing to listen to Plum take the microphone during that final loss against The Aces and say that they will continue working on ways to improve.
An issue with talking about the first game since then is to acknowledge that The Sparks have changed significantly since 10 months ago. To start with some minor disappointments, I am saddened to see certain players leave. Alissa Pilli is someone I really liked but never felt like she fit in the league. Thankfully, she was able to block A’ja Wilson to an approving crowd before moving to Australia, but I always wished better. We also lost a handful of players to The Sky, who are in a rebuilding period, and I think stand to be better off once they fix management. With that said, I was precious to Rickea Jackson and wish she got to stick around more. I’m probably missing others (Julie Allemand and Sarah Ashlee Barker), but this feels like the most significant shuffle for an off-season during the past four years outside of losing our former star player Nneka Ogwumike.
Which, funnily enough, we got Nneka Ogwumike back! I’m glad she got to help Seattle better themselves after the Sue Bird retirement and Breanna Stewart trade to New York, but you notice her absence. I will always like Dearica Hamby and think she has a very maternal instinct for the team that helps a lot. However, I sometimes got the impression she wasn’t leadership material, or at least star player status. Every line-up announcement, it felt like she was not nearly as beloved as others on her roster. She could fight like hell and get you what you needed, but there’s a vast improvement by having everybody since (Plum and Ogwumike especially) fill out the weak spots.
Cut to this past weekend, and you get a decent contrast of whether The Sparks were living up to their promise. As someone who’s seen the match-up of Sparks v. Liberty… five times?... I have to say that you form assumptions, especially after New York’s own rebuild. Sure, they lost one of the league’s greatest coaches to Toronto and haven’t quite been the same since, but watching odd games on TV, you see the talent shining through. With that said, I haven’t been able to bet serious odds on The Sparks beating them since maybe 2021, when Sabrina Ionescu was still the hotshot in need of a better team. Since then, it feels like the fourth quarter is background noise where you tell that DJ Casper sample to shut up.
Still, there’s a fun mix of history and competition between me and my family. We get a lot out of following the teams and having longshot hopes of something surprising happening. If nothing else, we still get to see one of the best-going teams from the comfort of Southern California. In fact, it would’ve been easy to suggest that this game was going to be a rerun. Double-digit deficit for L.A. by the second quarter. A lot of sloppy plays and the absence of Cameron Brink (get well soon) couldn’t help either. No matter how much you believed in their hustle and ability to turn over, there’s still the fact that, objectively, New York’s team should be overqualified in a match-up that pits the home team as the underdogs.
The fact that it was also the 30th season anniversary of the first game could’ve served as an omen of sorts. Famously, New York won despite Los Angeles going on to have a more fruitful early run. It was to be a day filled with nostalgia and harkening back to yesteryear. Was it possible that the outcome would be relatively similar? Given that The Sparks, in my imagination, still play like an “average” team and not a “great” one, I had my qualms.
Another value in attending as many games as we have is that small improvements feel like climbing mountains. You are so used to the terrain that when something is different, it changes your world. In this case, it was the feeling of watching The Sparks climb out of the double-digit deficit so gradually that I wasn’t convinced it would happen.
Once it did, I had the passion for basketball as a live sport running through my veins like I hadn’t in years. I’d have to check the tapes and see if any game compares (I want to believe one or two of them went into overtime), but here was one that provided a level of suspense I hadn’t expected. Once the tie came down, it felt like both teams were fighting those last two minutes for dominance in ways I hadn’t seen since I saw The Clippers play The Mavericks back when Luka Doncic was playing with Kristaps Porzingis. If you ask why I defend Paul George as much as I do, it’s partially because he gave me one of the only true split-second buzzer beaters I’ve ever witnessed.
There is a rush, an intensity of hope that probably would seem less commonplace if The Knicks hadn’t exploited that loophole the past three months. When that tie came down, the room went manic. By the buzzer beater, there was a deafening cheer that is so overpowering that you’re not able to process your own interiority. The dreamlike nature of a three-point clenching shot from your returning champion is the type of nonsense I’ll get hooked on and say, “Now that we have her back, we can’t lose!” It’s the way we all came together to find joy in this second of our lives, this culmination of effort both in a single day and in a rivalry that’s long been uneven. Putting the gimmick aside, I do respect New York a lot, but after failing to make the playoffs last year, I have so much more aspiration to root for Los Angeles in hopes that we have a smaller fence to climb over when the door closes.
The good of the game is that I think it’s one of the more evenly distributed match-ups I’ve seen from these two teams. Everyone had a substantial point count, and they all had moments where they brought you closer to tasting victory. Any day where I get to see Plum score threes is good enough for me. It was a chance for Rae Burell to get a year older while lighting up the floor. Among the supporting cast that I really like, it’s nice to finally see Han Xu again after missing her last season.
I’m reserving the right to talk about the absence of Brink or Kate Martin at this time specifically because they didn’t play. My hope is that they’re available for our next game (on my birthday) against The Fever. With that said, my sister has had a funny jinx the past two years where a player she fixates on has a really lousy night. Last year, Martin scored as much as she did tonight. Meanwhile, her biggest hero in the world Sabrina Ionescu reverently paid tribute to the anniversary theme of the night and waited 30 minutes into a 40 minute game to score her only points. I get that she’s in an odd position right now with injury reports and all, but you can’t help but wish for better. With that said, she was a good role player tonight in that she kept the ball moving and gave other players big moments. In that respect, it’s a tad more encouraging than The Valkyries’ use of Martin.
To discuss the larger culture around the event, I want to start by saying that The Sparks have basically bought a whole new look, ironically a season or two after dubbing it “The new classic.” If anything feels “new,” it’s what we got going on now. Sparky’s doing more backflips. The DJ is less confrontational (a whole lot less “Come on, y’all!” being yelled), and one of the MC’s sounds like he could guide you peacefully through a massage parlor. Not a lot feels out of place if you’re just going for a game, but things like changing MC’s makes you draw attention to what’s different there. I remain envious of The Valkyries for getting our old MC because she was very nice and charismatic. Oddly enough, this is our second change in as many seasons, and she… seems decent. Everything fits into a box, though I’m wondering if it just feels new or if I really miss the raggedy edges the team used to have going back to that random game I went to a decade ago when Candace Parker was still on the team.
Whatever it is, I give them props for using the game to emphasize the culture. Intermissions were full of season ticket holders discussing their love of the team while various players provided their own look back on history. Along with the original announcer, most of the original starting line-up for both teams (minus Penny Toler) made an appearance at halftime, and it was heartwarming to hear all of them get their respective due. My sister probably also thanks me for showing how limited her Liberty fandom is by telling her who Teresa Weatherspoon (who got a significant cheer) is ahead of time. Which is all to say that if you’re interested in building appreciation for that team, the documentary Unfinished Business covers your bases… and makes me realize we probably would’ve gotten Joan Jett if this was in New York.
That has always been a small conflict I’ve had with “The Caitlin Clark Effect.” Not so much in the issue of her, but I don’t feel the people who were swayed by it cared about the history and evolution of the game. I’ll admit that my blind spots are massive and only filled by more contemporary documentaries, but I always commend people who watch out of passion and curiosity, who want to see a good game but also learn about other players and rituals. I don’t want to get down the line and have people be like, “Clark’s not playing, so nobody’s watching” (sorry, but I’ve run into that too many times). I’d rather be in this room where we recognize the legacy of figures like Sue Wicks or Rebecca Lobo, where we can do that cheesy tip-off thing, and everyone is having a good time. I think in general I resent the sports fans who are only in it for the wins because stats are less interesting than the errors.
I’m sure the other games we’ll attend will feel a bit more “normal” comparatively. I’m curious to know if The Fever can match the high that I just experienced, if just because that’s also a narrative high riding on the backs of years of almosts. Even if that’s not the case, I can enter this week saying that it felt good to be back. You know I’m having a great time when this boy in front of me spends the final quarter basically on his feet waving the giveaway t-shirt like a rally towel, and I’m not even mad. I’m too lazy to get up, yes, but the energy is just so right for absorbing that enthusiasm and living in the moment (it’s a lot better than the people sitting behind us who probably could’ve done better to fraternize in the food courts). You see how this sport has gradually built in the past five years, and you admire how genuine the passion has become. While I am still reluctant to place blame for that entirely on the rookies (that, again, is to ignore decades of quality), I can’t deny that enough came into focus to make it work out… even if I’ll soon be at risk of not seeing over half of the league’s teams with all of these expansions.
Anyway, Sparks won. It doesn’t happen enough, but when it does… you foolishly shout, “This is our year!” and think the literal second coming of Ogwumike is what it took to put everything back on the right track.
Comments
Post a Comment