#vanessa nygaard

[shezgotgame]

i need to know what kinda pull chris koclanes has with dallas cuz i remember in 2023, the phoenix mercury head coach at the time was fired after our team started 2-10 😭😭 liiiiike what’s really goin on over there moe

[yourdailyqueer]

Vanessa Nygaard

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 13 March 1975  

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Former prof basketball player, basketball coach

[female-buckets]

Nygaard killed her starters for no reason. So once again, Skylar called out Nygaard's strange and borderline cruel coaching style.

How did Nygaard even get this head coach position?

It all started after that big NBA investigation into Suns/Mercury owner Robert Sarver. After the investigation, Mercury manager Jim Pitman, who's loyal to Sarver, fired Sandy Brondello. Then he handpicked a cheap high school coach to take Sandy's job. And now the Mercury players are getting that toxic high school coaching in a professional setting.

In the past, it seemed like the Mercury had funding to spend on all kinds of things. Now, after the Sarver investigation, the Mercury are pinching pennies. Is it all a coincidence? Or were certain Mercury employees on that list of 70 anonymous people who testified against Sarver? Did he cut the team's funding in retaliation?

[female-buckets]

God I love wnba drama. I live for it. Can’t wait to see what happens with SDS, Dee, and the coach. Who’s gonna go? 👀

Coach please. Please go, coach. 100% coach goes.

My guess is "Nygaard has to go" has been a topic of conversation between the team leaders.

DT spent her whole career trying to fill every Mercury job opening with a friend. She operates through nepotism. Then, last winter, Jim Pitman fired the entire coaching staff, all of DT's people. And he put a complete stranger in charge. This absolutely put a lid on DT's power and influence over the franchise.

If Skylar had a problem with DT's nepotism and influence, she'd be happy about Sandy getting fired. I really doubt Skylar is happy about this, though.

I wonder if they started complaining to the front office about Nygaard? I wonder if that's what caused Nygaard to try obnoxiously flattering DT? I wonder if the Nygaard complaints provoked Jim Pitman into threatening Skylar with a trade? What power do Diana and Skylar realistically have if they don't want to play for this coach?

It's important to remember that Jim Pitman works for arguably the sketchiest NBA owner in the league. Robert Sarver. How does he fit into all this?

[female-buckets]

100% there has to be unequal treatment in some capacity. as a player, players know to be careful about what they say about other coaches because they talk. to say that about brondello and not even throw in a “so does vanessa nygaard” is a not as subtle way of saying nygaards got favorites

Ohhhh definitely. The big Sandy love-fest was the shadiest show of kindness I've ever seen! And the players were united in that shadiness, too.

It's clear from her All-Star comments that Nygaard is a sycophant about Diana. Or, at least that's how she talks in front of the press. Sandy used big superlatives to hype up Diana too, but she'd hype every player that same way. She'd talk about Alanna Smith like she was the future of basketball.

But Nygaard is different. The fact that she put her own player down to suck up to Diana is awful. That kind of tactic is not going to work on Diana. If Diana isn't satisfied with your coaching, no amount of empty flattery is going to sway her.

I've watched Mercury media availability throughout this chaotic season. And I can't think of one instance of a player saying anything positive about Nygaard. If there was a moment like that, I'm sure they'd advertise the clip all over Mercury social media. But I've never seen anything like that. The only Nygaard reviews from players are Tina leaving and Skylar's 🤡 emoji.

I was a Nygaard fan in the beginning because she was a new face dealing with an impossible situation. And she was charismatic in interviews. But wow, things have gone dramatically downhill.

I just have so many questions and theories. This team is like a labyrinth of mess. There are so many layers and it goes all the way back to last season. I wonder if the general manager's dissatisfaction with Sandy had to do with her loyalty to her players? She did let them skip media availability after the finals loss. I'm sure the franchise had to pay a fine for that. If the franchise prioritizes ownership over players, Sandy's loyalty to her players could've gotten her fired.

If loyalty was the problem, finding a replacement loyal to ownership over players would be difficult. Diana is 40 years old and has a rapport with every basketball coach with a WNBA resume. She'd have no problem winning their loyalty. So the front office would need to find a total outsider coach that Diana doesn't know at all. And Vanessa Nygaard fits that description.

Who even knows. All of this feels like just the tip of the iceberg.

[female-buckets]

The emotional toll is a real thing

(Vanessa Nygaard press conference, 6/12/22 in Washington DC)

[female-buckets]

I know–and there’s some women in the room and I’m sure they’ll agree with me–if it was the other way around and men had periods, and men gave birth, and men had cramps, everything would be covered. Tampons would be free. You would get the week off work when it was your period. Everything would be the other way around.

And you don’t think this abortion thing would be the other way around?

If you don’t think that we’re biased towards the male in this situation, this is another example. And we know how this effects us.

And this doesn’t take away abortion. Abortion will continue. It will just be unsafe. And so that’s where you’re hurting women. 

It’s not about “this isn’t how we should have it. This wasn’t in the original construct of the constitution.”

Are you kidding me?

I mean, people were riding horses and shooting muskets, right? And come on, women weren’t even people! We couldn’t even vote!

So you’re gonna let us vote, but you’re gonna say “oh, well, you couldn’t have an abortion.”

You know what? I bet in 1812 and 1614 and whenever Columbus sailed that ocean blue, whatever they wanna tell us in the history books which we know isn’t true, I bet that women were having abortions in some way, in some fashion, that was unsafe. And it’s very upsetting to live in a country that’s going backwards in time. 

But, I mean, you guys can hit me up. I’m not on twitter so you can tweet at me all you want. Or tweet at something. But, I’m for sure that if men had periods, this whole thing would be different.

Am I gonna make SportsCenter for that? Oh, wait, no. No way. 'Cause it's a women's issue

-Vanessa Nygaard

[female-buckets]

–MERCURY CAMP 4/17/2022–