January 12, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Raegan Pebley, new GM of Los Angeles Sparks, has done it all
By The Next
'All of a sudden, boom, this opportunity came about where I was gonna get a chance'
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Howard Megdal is joined by the newly minted GM of the Los Angeles Sparks, Reagan Pebley. From her time as an NCAA head coach and a WNBA broadcaster, to her childhood on the sidelines of the WBL, Pebley discussed her road to the GM position and what excites her about taking on the new role.
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“In my role as a head coach, in my role when I was broadcasting in the W, I really tried to just put myself completely into that space and night not get distracted,” Pebley said. “But I would I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I’ve never been able to detach completely from the WNBA. It showed up in my life at such an important time, my senior year of college was when the WNBA was announced that it was going to be launched.”
“So even though I was a little girl that had literally grown up around professional women’s basketball during such a chunk of important years, there was no US League, I didn’t have the US league to aspire towards. But then, all of a sudden, boom, this opportunity came about where I was gonna get a chance,” she continued.
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Pebley also spoke about how she became interested in the general manager position, and how, coming from the coaching world, the business side of the sport caught her attention.
“I knew at some point I didn’t envision myself being a coach, like my dad who’s still coaching college basketball at Collin Community Junior College and, or Gary Blair, God bless him, like he’s one of our best that ever coached this game. C. Vivian Stringer, literally one of the best ever to be a part of our game, I didn’t imagine myself coaching that late into my life,” Pebley said. “But I knew that I loved leadership, and I loved organizational leadership. I wasn’t positive the direction that that would head and I served on the [Women’s Basketball Coaches Association] board and really enjoyed looking at the game from that macro level and serving the game that way.”
“And so as time started going, I started to pay attention to how a narrowed focus and leadership in the general manager position and especially the important direction the league is heading in separating that role from the head coach role, from the President’s role. A lot of organizations are recognizing how important that role is, and it needs to be a standalone role to truly serve the players well, and to serve the game,” she added.
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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Pebley and Megdal also discussed Pebley’s time as head coach at Utah State, Fresno State and TCU, as well as her many stories and experiences from a life of coaching and playing basketball. Listen to Locked On Women’s Basketball every day to learn more about women’s basketball history, the game and its players, and much more!
