Sparks Seimone Augustus retired with nothing left to prove on the court Orange County Registe
The rookie coach has a lot to learn, she says readily, because, until about a week ago, she was one of the most decorated vets in basketball, a respected hooper resisting the pull of coaching that she’d been feeling for the past five years or so.
She successfully avoided it until about a half-hour to go before the WNBA’s deadline for roster cuts last week, when Seimone Augustus said she called Derek Fisher – the team’s coach and general manager – and told him she believed the time had come to close the book on a long, illustrious playing career.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, Augustus won four WNBA titles with Minnesota and three Olympic gold medals representing the United States. Add eight All-Star appearances, six-All-WNBA teams to her long list of achievements.
After signing with the rival Sparks last year and playing well for them in the bubble, in what turned out to be be her 15th and final season as a pro, she leaves the game as the 10th-leading scorer in league history (6,005 points) and as a 48% career field-goal shooter (seventh best in WNBA history).
Augustus also will be remembered as one the first WNBA players to take a public stance against racial injustice, when she and other members of the Lynx protested the 2016 police killings of Black men Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
What she’s most proud of, Augustus said in a wide-ranging, 40-plus minute virtual news conference Wednesday, is having inspired others: “Nipsey Hussle said it the best: The highest human act is to inspire.”
Nipsey Hussle said it the best: ‘The greatest human act is to inspire,’ so to be able to inspire whoever…really touched me in a way I didn’t know it would.”@seimoneaugustus on her proudest moment after 15 seasons in the WNBA. ?
*Warning: Prepare your tissues. pic.twitter.com/BaQId099n8
— Los Angeles Sparks (@LASparks) May 20, 2021
She said she sees evidence of that when she returns to Baton Rogue, Louisiana, where she was raised and where she’ll hear parents whispering to their kids when they see her: That’s Seimone Augustus, she did it.
“That’s dope for me, ’cause now the little black and brown kids that grew up in my neighborhood that kind of find it hard to get out of there, got someone to look to that be like, ‘Well, she made it, I know I can too,’: she said. “So that really affects me in a different way … I’m thankful that I’m their one.”
Augustus thought about all that last week.
And she evaluated the roster crunch in the Sparks’ training camp: “Two players that popped into my head, Nia Coffey and Bria Holmes. Two players that have been around this league, trying to find a home, they work really hard. Nia really had a great training camp and Bria had a very solid training camp, and she’s a mother. Both of these players are trying to fulfill their dreams. I’m just like, ‘If I can’t play and be my wholehearted self and give everything that need to give to this team, then maybe I should step away?’”
She also took stock of what her 37-year-old body was telling her: “The aches, the pains, the discomfort I was experiencing, it was too much to bear. Normally, that’s the whole beauty of being an athlete, we’re able have our minds command our bodies and we’re able to do amazing things. Jump through the air, jump really high, shoot the ball, these amazing things. For once, my mind couldn’t tell my body to do what it wanted it to do.”
But most of all, she listened to her parents.
“I don’t know what I was expecting from my parents, but when I called them, I was like, ‘Mom, I’m thinking of hanging up my shoes. My body just doesn’t feel right, my mind doesn’t feel right,’” Augustus said. “And she was literally like, ‘I don’t know what else you were trying to accomplish!’ She was like, ‘Me and your dad have been sitting here like, what else is it that you want to do? You’ve done everything.’ … and she was like, ‘It’s time for you to get some rest’ and I was in agreeance with that. I was like, ‘Yeah, it really is time for me to get some rest.’”
So before the Sparks’ 2021 roster was finalized, Augustus called Fisher with an unexpected idea.
“I called Fish at about 1:30 and I was like, I didn’t want to throw a monkey wrench into his decision-making for the final roster-making for the team, but I wanted to be as open and transparent as I could,” Augustus said. “‘If this is going to affect someone else’s opportunity on this team, let me go and find what was next for me in my career path.’ So after Fish and I had that intimate conversation, the coaching idea came and I was like, ‘Perfect.’”
Earlier in the week, Fisher said the decision was all Augustus’.
“We respected her and trusted her enough to allow her to make that decision,” he said. “I think she got to a point where it was something she felt really good about doing. We’re really excited and we appreciate her to being so committed to wanting to jump in and roll her sleeves up and make this team better. People and players of her caliber are very, very rare, so to have her mind and her presence and everything about her around our players every day, that’s a net positive.”
SPARKS LOOK TO REBOUND
Augustus will help coach her second game when the Sparks try to bounce back Friday in Las Vegas after a lopsided 94-71 opening-night loss to Dallas in L.A. The 7:30 p.m. game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and Spectrum SportsNet.
Against the Wings, the Sparks shot just 35.9% from the field and were outrebounded 45-25 and outscored 74-44 in the final three quarters.
The Aces started their season with two games against the Seattle Storm, who swept them last season in the WNBA Finals. After losing the opener 97-83, Las Vegas beat Seattle 96-80 on Tuesday.
.@NickHamilton213 asked @seimoneaugustus who her biggest influence was, and Seimone didn’t deliberate at all: Her parents.❤️ https://t.co/gUPK6bWn9x pic.twitter.com/F4IsiOYVa0
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) May 19, 2021
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