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Sleepless nights. Video chats with family. Five meetings spanning four countries in less than 100 hours. An expense report longer than Courtney Vandersloot’s assist log.
James Wade’s world has no offseason. The coach and general manager of the Chicago Sky is booked and busy, whether the calendar reads January or July. And that’s just how he likes it.
“When you’re running a franchise, you aren’t really thinking about yourself that much during the process,” Wade said. “You’re thinking about what it takes to win. You want everybody to have that feeling. It’s like a drug, so I won’t stop. These things that we do in January and February are just a part of it. It’s tough, but it’s so worth it.”
In 2021, Wade’s Sky captured their first WNBA title. Wade assembled the team, then coached it to victory, developing relationships that transcended basketball.
At the time, a coach doubling as a GM was nothing newsworthy. Five of the league’s 12 teams had one person occupying both roles, a sixth if you include Bill Laimbeer, who was coach and president of basketball operations of the Las Vegas Aces.
Now? Wade stands alone in the dual role. Laimbeer stepped down. The Los Angeles Sparks fired Derek Fisher. The Washington Mystics’ Mike Thibault handed over coaching duties to his son, Eric, while remaining as general manager. Curt Miller left the Connecticut Sun to fill the Sparks’ coaching vacancy. Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve relinquished her GM title, even if she still has sway in the Lynx’s basketball operations department.
Is the scarcity of folks holding two positions becoming a larger enterprise? The WNBA is growing. Viewership is steadily rising alongside social media engagement metrics. The league’s collective bargaining agreement, established in January 2020, nudged the maximum salary ceiling upward.
“We’ve become a bigger-time organization,” Thibault said. “There’s more to do. You have a situation where there’s a new CBA with more money being spent and more decisions to be made. You get to this point of, do you want to be sitting across the table from an agent — and by association, a player — in a contract negotiation, and then you have to coach them later on? I think we’re headed back to separating it a little bit more so you don’t have that dynamic in place.”
Wade, however, doesn’t think the shift has much to do with the CBA.
“People are trying to play with the people they want to play with, and that’s it,” he said. “I don’t think (the GM job) has changed.”
The Sky named Wade its coach and general manager in 2019. He won the Coach of the Year award in his first season and in 2022 was named WNBA Executive of the Year.
Thibault took over as coach and general manager of the Mystics in 2013. Like Wade in Chicago, Thibault helped bring the Washington franchise its first WNBA title in 2019.
“It’s funny, it’s come full circle in a sense,” Thibault said. “There were a lot of teams (in the league’s early years) who had a general manager and then a coach. Then, over a period of time, you had it become a combined job for various reasons. For some organizations it was because they didn’t want to spend the money on two positions.
“The difference for our league compared to the NBA is that because we play in the summer, we can go as coaches and do our own scouting of college kids during the winter. The feeling was you’re going to scout them anyway — if you have somebody that is capable of being both, then hire them and they’re going to draft and sign the team they want to coach.”
This is a benefit of the coach-GM model. Have a specific system you want to install? Have an idea of which players would thrive in that system? With a singular vision dictating separate responsibilities, an identity is born. Of course, there are compelling disadvantages too. Workloads become overwhelming. The interpersonal push-and-pull between forging meaningful relationships and managing people’s contracts can get … tricky.
Wade and Thibault lean on assistants for advice. Communication is paramount in order to thrive doing both jobs.
“I’m very open-minded and I listen to people,” Wade said. “The good thing about me is I’m never the smartest person in the room. I’m not the only one making decisions.”
No one exemplifies Wade’s gift as a listener quite as well as Astou Ndour-Fall, a member of the 2021 championship team. The two share a bond that dates to 2014, when Ndour-Fall was drafted by the San Antonio Stars, with whom Wade was an assistant coach.
“I can say he was my mentor because my first year in the league, I was not speaking English,” said Ndour-Fall, who no longer is with the Sky. “Like, nothing. I was just (speaking) French. He would translate for me. Every single time he (said), ‘Astou, it’s OK. Just take it easy and play your basketball. Just try to be yourself and be free. If you don’t understand anything, just ask me.’ ”
Wade’s connection to Ndour-Fall guided his front-office sensibilities in Chicago. Players — even those who don’t share much history with Wade — are struck by his approach in free-agency meetings.
“I like that James was very straightforward and honest,” said Elizabeth Williams, who signed with the Sky this offseason. “Any questions that I had — it could be basketball related, about the city, about the apartments, anything like that — I always make sure to ask. He was honest about who he is as a competitor and the culture that he’s helped build.”
Not all GMs are so approachable, so hands-on. In four days at the end of January into February, Wade flew from the United States to France, then to Italy, then to Turkey (where Williams currently is playing) to make the aforementioned five free-agency pitches.
Wade treats members of the Sky as family because he understands how important human support systems are during hectic patches on the calendar.
Amid these chaotic travel spurts, Wade’s family stabilizes him. His wife, Edwige Lawson-Wade, is a former player who understands the grind of professional basketball. His son, Jet, cheers him up on FaceTime. Wade’s mom, siblings and close friends support him when he’s on the road or at home.
“I make sure that I make time for them because I want our players to make time for their families,” Wade said. “We try our best to focus on family being a big part of what we do.”
Despite the demanding workload, Wade insists he’s getting enough rest.
“I’ve been reputed as a person that doesn’t sleep,” he said. “When I first got the job, I wasn’t really taking my sleep as seriously as I am now. I think I’m better now. I’m still breathing, so it’s fine.”
The man who travels the world each winter to build a team capable of excelling in the summer has his eyes firmly fixed on the future.
“The basketball business is about ‘What have you done for me lately?’ ” Wade said. “I’ll never get put in a light where I’m able to credit myself or get credit. Just keep on doing my job. That’s it.”
Owen Pence is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune
