WNBA Lures Sharp Back to L.A.

How often is a coach hired by one of her former players?

It happened Wednesday when the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Assn. hired former USC coach Linda Sharp.

Sharp developed five All-Americans at USC, and Rhonda Windham, the Sparks’ general manager, was one of them. Cheryl Miller was another, and she will now be a WNBA coaching rival of Sharp’s, at Phoenix.

Sharp, 47, returns to Los Angeles from Southwest Texas State, where she has coached the last eight seasons. In her 1977-1989 term at USC, she produced successive NCAA championship teams in 1983 and ’84.

She joins a franchise with four assigned players and a roster that will be doubled by the four-round WNBA draft on April 28. The last two roster spots will be filled after tryouts at Loyola Marymount on May 10-11.

The WNBA’s 28-game season begins June 21. The Sparks will play at the Forum.

Sharp’s team features the WNBA’s biggest player, 6-foot-9 Zheng Haixa of China; arguably the world’s best player, 6-5 Lisa Leslie of Inglewood; a 5-7 point guard, Penny Toler of Long Beach State; and a 6-2 front-line player, Daedra Charles of Tennessee.

Sharp entered the Sparks’ picture after weeks-long talks with another former USC coach, Marianne Stanley, broke off. Stanley, hired less than a year ago by Cal, was reluctant to leave Berkeley after only one season.

Stanley became USC’s coach in 1989 when Sharp left for Southwest Texas State.

Sharp’s USC teams made the NCAA tournament nine times and reached the Final Four on four occasions. At Southwest Texas State, she had eight consecutive winning seasons.

“While it was a difficult decision to leave Southwest Texas, I am looking forward to being back in L.A. with my family and friends,” she said. “And I’m very excited about working with Rhonda Windham.”