Sparks Replace Sharp on Bench

Spark Coach Linda Sharp was fired by her former USC point guard Wednesday, about three hours before the WNBA team played the Houston Comets.

Assistant coach Julie Rousseau, 32, a former UC Irvine player, was named interim head coach.

General Manager Rhonda Windham cited the underachieving team’s emotional deportment as a key reason for the quick hook on Sharp, 47, who was only 11 games into the 28-game season.

The Sparks were 4-7 before defeating Houston, 77-52.

“The team was starting to go down the drain, and I didn’t like the look in the players’ eyes--there was no fire anymore,” said Windham, the point guard on Sharp’s Cheryl Miller-led USC teams that won national championships in the early 1980s.

The players were told by Windham at 5 p.m.

Sharp, who said she’s “going back to Texas to play golf the rest of the summer,” learned her fate during a two-hour, 15-minute, mid-afternoon meeting with Windham.

“I’m shell-shocked,” Sharp said. “I’ve never been fired before. I’m disappointed, sure. I felt this team was going to hit its stride. Five of our seven losses were on the road, and in this league everyone’s going to lose on the road.”

Sharp said she’d be paid for the balance of her three-year contract.

Windham said Sharp’s remaining assistant, Wanda Szeremeta, would be retained, and that part-time coach/scout Orlando Woolridge, a former Laker, would become the second assistant coach.

Windham said she’d had several conversations with Sharp since the team began losing leads and games, starting with the season’s second game at Utah on June 23.

How difficult was it to fire her former coach?

“I love Linda Sharp,” she said. “She was a good coach when I hired her and she’s still a good coach. It was strictly business. Hey, I asked for this job, and this is the kind of thing that comes with it.”

At the season’s outset, most WNBA observers were calling Los Angeles the team to beat.

But as the team lost four of its last five, Windham said she didn’t like the way it was losing.

“We were getting leads on these teams, showing our superiority, and then going soft,” she said.

“If we’re good enough to lead, why weren’t we doing it all game long? I just felt we needed a change.”

Player reaction was predictable.

“We were told 20 minutes ago, and I guess you could say we’re in shock,” Lisa Leslie said.

“We definitely needed some kind of change, losing the same way all the time. I guess my reaction is it’s time for the team to look ahead, not back.”

Said Heidi Burge: “Part of me is shocked. I expected a change if we continued this way, but after the season.

“We’re a run-and-gun, high-fiving kind of team. We’re emotional players. That’s how we started out, but how often have you seen us playing with emotion lately? Julie’s a very positive motivator, and I think we need that now. It’s all mental, this game.”