WNBA Coach of the Year Award

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The Women's National Basketball Association's Coach of the Year is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the league's inaugural season. The winner is selected at the end of regular season by a panel of sportswriters from the United States, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points; and each third-place vote is worth one point. The person with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.

Seven coaches have won both this award and the WNBA Finals in the same season: Van Chancellor (1997–1999), Bill Laimbeer (2003), John Whisenant (2005), Brian Agler (2010), Cheryl Reeve (2011), Sandy Brondello (2014), and Becky Hammon (2022).

Van Chancellor, Mike Thibault, and Cheryl Reeve have won the award the most times, with 3 selections each.

Winners[edit]

Van Chancellor won the first three Coach of the Year awards.
Denotes coach who is still active in the WNBA
Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach
Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach
Denotes coach whose team won championship that year
Player (X) Denotes the number of times the coach has won
Team (X) Denotes the number of times a coach of this team has won
Season Coach Nationality Team Record
1997 Van Chancellor  United States Houston Comets 18–10
1998 Van Chancellor (2)  United States Houston Comets (2) 27–3
1999 Van Chancellor (3)  United States Houston Comets (3) 26–6
2000 Michael Cooper  United States Los Angeles Sparks 28–4
2001 Dan Hughes  United States Cleveland Rockers 22–10
2002 Marianne Stanley  United States Washington Mystics 17–15
2003 Bill Laimbeer  United States Detroit Shock 25–9
2004 Suzie McConnell-Serio[a]  United States Minnesota Lynx 18–16
2005 John Whisenant  United States Sacramento Monarchs 25–9
2006 Mike Thibault  United States Connecticut Sun 26–8
2007 Dan Hughes (2)  United States San Antonio Silver Stars 20–14
2008 Mike Thibault (2)  United States Connecticut Sun (2) 21–13
2009 Marynell Meadors  United States Atlanta Dream 18–16
2010 Brian Agler  United States Seattle Storm 28–6
2011 Cheryl Reeve  United States Minnesota Lynx (2) 27–7
2012 Carol Ross  United States Los Angeles Sparks (2) 24–10
2013 Mike Thibault (3)  United States Washington Mystics (2) 17–17
2014 Sandy Brondello  Australia Phoenix Mercury 29–5
2015 Bill Laimbeer (2)  United States New York Liberty 23–11
2016 Cheryl Reeve (2)  United States Minnesota Lynx (3) 28–6
2017 Curt Miller  United States Connecticut Sun (3) 21–13
2018 Nicki Collen  United States Atlanta Dream (2) 23–11[1]
2019 James Wade  United States/ France Chicago Sky 20–14[2]
2020 Cheryl Reeve (3)  United States Minnesota Lynx (4) 14–8[3]
2021 Curt Miller (2)  United States Connecticut Sun (4) 26–6[4]
2022 Becky Hammon  United States/ Russia Las Vegas Aces (2)[b] 26–10[5]
2023 Stephanie White  United States Connecticut Sun (5) 27–13[6]
  1. ^ McConnell-Serio is a member of the Women's Hall of Fame, but as a player instead of a coach.
  2. ^ The San Antonio Silver Stars and Las Vegas Aces are the same franchise. The franchise was a founding league member as the Utah Starzz, and moved to San Antonio after the 2002 season. The word "Silver" was dropped in 2014, and the team moved to Las Vegas after the 2017 season.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • "WNBA Coach of the Year". Retrieved January 19, 2009.
  • "Thibault to be named 2008 WNBA Coach of the Year". Retrieved September 20, 2008.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Atlanta's Nicki Collen Named 2018 WNBA Coach Of The Year". wnba.com. WNBA. August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  2. ^ "Chicago's James Wade Named 2019 WNBA Coach Of The Year". wnba.com. WNBA. September 11, 2019. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  3. ^ "Cheryl Reeve Named WNBA Coach Of The Year". wnba.com. WNBA. September 17, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  4. ^ "Connecticut Sun Head Coach Curt Miller Named 2021 Coach Of the Year". wnba.com. WNBA. September 28, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  5. ^ "Las Vegas Aces' Becky Hammon Named 2022 WNBA Coach Of The Year" (Press release). WNBA. August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  6. ^ "Connecticut Sun's Stephanie White Named 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year" (Press release). WNBA. September 17, 2023. Retrieved September 17, 2023.