LA Sparks coach Curt Miller still takes pride in former players despite loss to Connecticut Sun

UNCASVILLE — After his Los Angeles Sparks suffered an ugly 79-70 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday, coach Curt Miller didn’t follow the players directly back to the visiting locker room.

Instead, the former Connecticut coach took a detour as he headed towards the tunnel to embrace a Mohegan Sun Arena security guard posted up by the edge of the court. Miller may sit at the end of the opposing bench now when he returns to Uncasville, but he’ll never be a stranger to the franchise that gave him his first WNBA head coaching job.

“As someone that coached this team to 14 straight wins to end a season, knowing they’re playing for 13-1 starting for the first 14 games, I’m a huge fan, outside of us playing,” Miller said. “This organization is top notch. I’m still really close with the front office and (Sun president) Jen (Rizzotti), but it’s the back of the house people. I’ve said hi to all the security guards, all the people here. This place was truly special.”

Before he was hired as Sparks head coach in 2023, Miller spent the seven seasons leading the Sun from 2016-22 and helped reestablish the franchise into a perennial contender in the WNBA Playoffs. Connecticut reached at least the second round of the postseason in the last six straight years of Miller’s tenure, including appearances in the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022.

Miller’s return to Connecticut with the Sparks, his third trip back to Mohegan Sun since departing for Los Angeles, was also a homecoming of sorts for several members of his staff. Assistant coach Nola Henry was on his Sun staff from 2021-23, and fellow assistant Camille Smith played under Miller in Connecticut in 2015-16. As Henry and Smith caught up with DeWanna Bonner pregame, superstar Alyssa Thomas peeled away from her warmup routine to jog over to the Sparks’ side of the gym and wrap Smith in a bear hug from behind.

The Sun look dramatically different on the court than they did under Miller’s leadership, but key pieces of his roster like Bonner and Thomas remain foundations of today’s Connecticut squad. Miller is the one who shifted Thomas from playing the three to the four in just his second season, and that move ultimately allowed her to blossom into the triple-double machine she’s known as today. Miller doesn’t take any credit for that decision though, chalking it up to a call made out of necessity after All-Star forward Chiney Ogwumike suffered a Achilles injury in December 2016 that caused her to miss the 2017 season.

“Other than (2019), every single year we had a starter out … and it’s one of the unintended consequences that’s the greatest thing that ever happened,” Miller said. “She proved to be one of two, with Candace Parker, of the best facilitators in the world. She’s clearly become over the last few years, the best facilitating forward in the world. I didn’t help create that. The injury forced us to play her out of position, and all of a sudden it was like this could be really special. Steph has taken it to an even higher level.”

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Miller also drafted fourth-year veteran DiJonai Carrington, who is in the midst of a breakout season in her first year starting for the Sun. Carrington took her selection at No. 20 overall in the 2021 WNBA Draft personally, and she said she will always be grateful to Miller for recognizing her potential when so many others didn’t.

“I have a lot of respect for Curt, because every single team in the draft passed on me,” Carrington said. “Every single team had at least one opportunity if not two to draft me, and Connecticut took me with their first opportunity … It was a lot of learning when he was here, but he just helped me especially defensively and X’s and O’s.”

It’s no surprise to Miller that Carrington has emerged as a frontrunner for Most Improved Player in 2024. He caught his former draftee in the hallway before the game for a hug, Carrington towering over him in the high-heeled boots she wore for her game day entrance.

“I’m so proud when I look around the league and I look at (veteran) players … that were coached by us here watching so many of the little things that they do to be great pros,” Miller said. “I remark all the time, ‘They didn’t always do that,’ and so I take great pride in watching what players are doing around the league. DiJonai was a huge success story in our stretch of second-round pick success stories. The way she’s defending, the way she’s attacking downhill — she could always attack downhill, but the finishing now is just elite. I’m just really, really happy for her and proud for her.”