ARLINGTON, TX — For the first time in four years the Dallas Wings will open the WNBA season with a new coach pacing the sidelines.
With the season 98 days away, the Wings are ready to usher in a new era under Brian Agler, who takes over for Fred Williams, after the team parted ways with Williams last year.
Agler brings veteran coaching experience to Dallas, spending his the last four years as the head man of the Los Angeles Sparks. Agler was a proven winner in L.A., totaling a record of 85-31 in four seasons with the Sparks while guiding them to two Western Conference semifinals, and two Western Conference finals appearances.
Previous to L.A. Agler had head coaching stints at Division I Kansas State before coming to the WNBA where he’s been with the Minnesota Lynx and the Seattle Storm. The 60-year old Agler was also an assistant for the Phoenix Mercury and the San Antonio Silver Stars.
His coaching record speaks for itself after 26 years of coaching, tallying a career combined record of 271-218.
Agler is a graduate of Wittenberg University in Ohio, where he helped the Tigers win the 1977 Division III NCAA Championship as a point guard. He began his coaching career in 1993 as he was named the head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats women’s basketball team. In the midst of his third season as the head coach, he was suspended due to violating NCAA rules. His teams posted an above .500 record just once (1994-1995) in his two and a half seasons at the helm.
Agler had two stints in the WNBA. His first began immediately after the dismissal of the ABL, as he took on being the head coach of the Minnesota Lynx. The league began with just eight teams when they were created in 1996: the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets and New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference; and the Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz in the Western Conference.
After season one in 1997, the following year the league added in two more teams, the Detroit Shock and the Washington Mystics. Once season two completed another pair of teams were added to the mix, those being the Orlando Miracle and the Minnesota Lynx. In 1999, he began his coaching career in the WNBA, where he struggle mightily in his first few seasons. In years one and two his team had a record of 15-17 and missed the playoffs both years. After those first two years of trying to find his way in the league, it didn’t get much better the following year as the team trickled even further down the totem poll in the WNBA. In year three, the Lynx were just 12-20 on the season and they would miss the playoffs yet again. After a couple just below average seasons and one bad season, Agler was fired as the head coach 19 games into the season.
The coaching career of Agler continuing to fluctuate since his first year, bad start at the college level, to a great turnaround at the pro level in one league, then to a terrible beginning with his early days in the WNBA.
After the firing mid-season in 2002, Agler took some brief time away from head coaching and got into some assistant coaching roles with the Phoenix Mercury in 2004 and then the San Antonio Silver Stars from 2005-2007.
During the off-season of the 2007 year, Basketball Hall of Famer, Anne Donovan, head coach of the Seattle Storm, resigned as the head coach in November 2007. Agler was named head coach and general manager of his new team on January 9, 2008. Agler found success after beginning his second stint on the head coaching side of things in the WNBA. During his first two seasons, his Seattle Storm had a 22-12 record and advanced to the Western Conference Semi-Finals both years losing to the Silver Stars and the Mercury(won championship) halting a chance at Agler’s first Finals appearance since he won the ABL Championship in 1998.
Regardless of falling short in his first two years back in the league, Agler and company had lost of promise and high hopes for the next season. That next season, the Storm came back even better than before as he led them to their second championship in franchise history and a 28-6 record on the season.
After all the ups and downs, the bad teams, the firings, and multiple new teams for Agler, he finally found a home and success in Seattle. It took Agler 12 years to capture another title.
After completing two more seasons with the Sparks and making it back to the Finals again the following year after the championship, they lost to the Lynx t give them their fourth championship in franchise history. They would make it back to the playoffs again in 2018, but ended up losing in the semi-finals.
Reasons like these are why Agler will be a great fit at the helm in Dallas. Agler was named head coach of the Dallas Wings on December 17, 2018 and is the winningest coach in WNBA history with 271 career wins. He seems to be a coach that has been through it all, he’s been at the top of the mountain and the bottom, he’s had great teams, he’s had bad teams, and he’s won on the biggest and lost on the biggest. He will be great for the Dallas franchise for various reasons, one being that he’s been through it all. All the highs and lows of professional basketball, the humbling moments, the learning ones, and much more. He is unafraid to take on new challenges, which definitely shows in this regard.
On the previous two teams he was announced on as a head coach, he had at least two current/future Hall of Famers on his team, starting with Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson in Seattle as well as Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike in Los Angeles. That is not the case this time around as the only potential Hall of Famer is Liz Cambage, with Skylar Diggins-Smith focusing on her current pregnancy away from the team. The Wings roster is full of various young talent, but to get where Dallas wants to go, which is ultimately the WNBA Finals, they must maintain consistency. The new culture change that will be implemented by Agler and roster additions to come will give us more of an idea of what we can expect from the Wings for years to come.
One roadblock in beginning this season, is the uncertain fate of Liz Cambage. Earlier in January she made it know that she wants to be traded from the Dallas Wings. A destination for Liz is still unknown, but the Wings are hopeful the situation can be resolved soon so they can ramp up preparation for the 2019 season and begin recreating culture once the roster is fully established. Agler at the helm remains a positive for Wings fans until proven otherwise.
