Coaching overseas has prepared James Wade for his first head-coaching job in Chicago
After 2018 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart injured her Achilles playing overseas this spring, there were outcries from fans, media, and players alike about WNBA players having to go overseas during the offseason to earn more money. Last month, Chicago Sky guard Kahleah Copper told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “If I didn’t have to go overseas I wouldn’t. … I’m sure 90 percent of the league would probably say the same thing. We don’t make enough.”
The Inquirer reports that 56 percent of WNBA players went overseas following the 2018 WNBA season. But, in a phenomenon that’s talked about much less, at least one WNBA coach did the same — and he says that he, along with many players, wants to be there. That coach is James Wade, the first-year head coach of the Chicago Sky.
Wade began his WNBA coaching career in 2012 as an intern with the San Antonio Stars (now the Las Vegas Aces) and spent his first offseason as a scout for Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg. For the next three years, he was an assistant coach for the Stars in the summers and for French team Basket Lattes Montpellier Agglomération (BLMA) in the winters. In 2017, he got two new jobs — assistant coach of the Minnesota Lynx and of UMMC Ekaterinburg — and spent two seasons with each team before being named head coach of the Chicago Sky ahead of the 2019 WNBA season.
Wade says his primary motivation for coaching during the offseason is not financial. “I want to get better,” he told Her Hoop Stats before the Sky’s game against the Washington Mystics on June 5. “I think it makes me a better coach, being able to coach [in the offseason] and practice my craft.” He thinks that many WNBA players have the same mindset and are motivated more by the potential to improve their game than by their earnings potential. “I think it’s more than money … I think if you ask the players, yeah, they want to make more money, but I think they want to get better. They get to get better [overseas].”
Wade has coached several WNBA players overseas, including Washington’s Kristi Toliver, Phoenix’s Brittney Griner, Las Vegas’ Kayla McBride, and his own point guard, Courtney Vandersloot. Coaching Vandersloot last winter helped the pair develop a strong bond ahead of Wade’s first season in Chicago, and it also led to UMMC Ekaterinburg winning the Super Cup, EuroLeague, and Russian League titles. Wade also won a WNBA title with the Minnesota Lynx in 2017, and he told the Chicago Sun-Times in March that his championship experience, particularly in Minnesota, “gave me a blueprint for what it takes” to build a winning culture.
Wade also believes that coaching overseas has given him a blueprint for how to succeed as a head coach. “The coaching staff that I worked with in Europe, they gave me responsibility and they helped me along the way,” he said. “I think without [that experience], I wouldn’t have come into [Chicago] as prepared … I just feel like I was ready when it was time.”
When asked about the differences between coaching in Europe and in the United States, Wade mentioned roster construction, schedules, and travel, but evinced no preference for one setup over the other. European teams usually practice twice a day for shorter amounts of time and the schedule tends to be more regular, with games on the weekends and on Wednesdays. “It’s just a different mentality, so I’m not saying one is better than the other. I enjoy them both,” he said.
However, Wade cited several advantages of coaching abroad, including the fact that he is in a more similar time zone to the Sky’s overseas players. “I can talk to them a lot more, I can see them a lot more … It’s actually very interesting as far as keeping up with the players on our roster.” He also has up-to-date scouting reports on opposing WNBA players from either coaching them or coaching against them overseas. In the Sky’s game against the Mystics, for example, three Mystics players had played for Wade in Russia: Toliver, Latoya Sanders, and Emma Meesseman.
Because Wade coaches or competes against so many WNBA players in the offseason, he believes that coaching overseas gives him better insight into the free agent market — which is crucial given that Wade is also Chicago’s general manager and therefore in charge of roster construction. “I want to know the players,” he says. “When it comes to free agency, I know how they’re playing all year long instead of hearing about it [second-hand].”
The downside that comes with increased access to professional players overseas is that Wade doesn’t get to attend college games in preparation for the WNBA Draft. But Wade says he tapes a lot of college games and watches them in his downtime to keep tabs on what’s happening stateside. “That’s the other thing about overseas,” he said. “You get to plan what your off days are going to be” because the schedule of games is more regular.
Coincidentally, Wade’s first game as a WNBA head coach came against Minnesota and his former boss, Cheryl Reeve. Wade called Reeve “a measuring stick for all coaches” and labeled the game “a good experience” despite the result, an 89–71 Lynx victory. “It was a good way to let our team and myself see where we were as a group,” he said. He got his first WNBA win the following week, on June 1 against Seattle.
Before the Washington game, Wade emphasized his desire for the Sky “to play to our identity” and compete on the road in an unfamiliar environment. This early in the season, the Sky are still determining what that identity will be, as they have not made the playoffs since 2016 and have several young players taking on large roles. Based on Wade’s time in Minnesota, people outside the team will likely compare Wade’s new-look Sky to the Lynx. However, his overseas experience will arguably be an equally important influence on his team’s identity and the franchise’s immediate future.
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