In 2024, the Los Angeles Sparks won a franchise-low 20 percent of their games, missed the playoffs for the fourth-straight year and fired their head coach, Curt Miller.
However, the calendar has turned—and 2025 looks very different. Lynne Roberts is now coaching the Sparks. They turned the No. 2 pick in the draft into Kelsey Plum. They also picked up not one, not two, not three, but four players from the draft pool, setting up their future.
The biggest splash came when Sparks drafted Sarah Ashlee Barker at the ninth spot. The wing from Alabama made noise in the NCAA Tournament, going off against Maryland and scoring 45 points in the team’s double overtime loss. The defeat was tough, but it didn’t take away from Barker’s sensational final year. She improved each season as a collegian, and in her final season, she averaged 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Now, she’ll have a chance to grow under Roberts and become the wing the Sparks have desperately needed this decade.
Los Angeles then drafted Sania Feagin from South Carolina with the No. 21 pick, and, as general manager Raegan Pebley later expressed, the team was shocked to find her still on the board.
Feagin spent her four seasons of college basketball at South Carolina, averaging 8.1…
