Sparks do ‘complete 180’ with camaraderie, accountability during training camp

It’s 2023 and Chiney Ogwumike gave the highest possible compliment of the Sparks’ first four days of training camp.

“The vibes are right,” the forward said Thursday with a broad smile.

Sparks players weren’t just smiling Thursday for their photo sessions during the team’s annual media day. They were marveling at the franchise’s new level of professionalism and camaraderie that’s taken hold with the first-year front-office tandem general managers, Karen Bryant and Curt Miller.

After cobbling together a practice schedule by hunting open court time in rental gyms, college campuses and the Lakers’ facility, the Sparks will call El Camino College their regular practice home this year. Any problems ranging from housing to medical staff questions, the team helps with immediately, free-agent forward Azurá Stevens said. Most players arrived in L.A. well before the season, helping the team develop chemistry on and off the court.

“It’s a complete 180 from last year,” said guard Jordin Canada, who is in her second year with the Sparks. “You can just sense that it’s a different environment, different atmosphere in the locker room. … Everyone on this team wants to see everyone be successful and do well, encouraging each other, pushing each other, holding each other accountable. That’s what we lacked last year: accountability.”

Canada was so convinced by the vision of Bryant and Miller that the five-year pro opted to return to her hometown team on a nonguaranteed training camp contract one year after signing as a coveted free agent from Seattle. She is competing in what Layshia Clarendon called, “the best point guard camp I’ve been at.”

Clarendon, a 32-year-old former college star at California now playing for a sixth WNBA franchise, offers a veteran voice to a backcourt that struggled without All-Star Chelsea Gray. Canada injects the group with speed and tests her teammates in transition drills. Jasmine Thomas, the floor general of Miller’s teams in Connecticut, is participating in practices after missing last year rehabbing a torn ACL, but didn’t give an exact timetable for her return to competition as the team prepares for its season opener at home on May 19 against the Phoenix Mercury.

Rookies Zia Cooke and Yang Liwei are also pushing for coveted roster spots. Cooke, the Sparks’ top draft pick last month, is working at both guard positions. Yang, 28, helped China claim the silver medal at the FIBA Women’s World Cup last year and played two seasons in China with Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike.

Yang didn’t cower while making the transition to what she called the “top league in the world.”

“To me, there’s nothing different to playing in the States because [I’m] just playing basketball on the other side of the planet,” Yang said through a translator. “Being a professional is [my] job everywhere.”

In her first WNBA experience, Yang was impressed by Miller’s commitment to building a strong culture with the Sparks.

“Selfless is the No. 1 thing,” she said. “Every player should think as a champion.”

Miller and Bryant side-stepped any explicit championship talk Thursday, opting instead to repeat their mantra of building sustainable success a day at a time. Fans in the city, though, might be getting impatient. The Sparks’ 25 wins during the last two seasons are the fewest for a two-year stretch in franchise history.

Despite the recent struggles, Stevens, a prized free-agent forward out of Chicago, eagerly signed with the Sparks for the rebuild. She hopes fans will do the same.

“The fans need to be loyal if we’re winning or losing,” Stevens said. “Because when we win the chip and you’re not loyal, I don’t want to hear anything from you.”