Bad news: the head coach of Indiana Fever wants to step down because of numerous problems with her husband.
Pokey Chatman couldn’t have predicted that her chance to establish the Indiana Fever would endure only three seasons when she took over a prestigious WNBA team in 2017. Chatman had to know that demands to swiftly return to postseason contention would loom.
Strangely enough, the woman who fired Chatman on Monday decided to retire, which is how the empty roster she had when she started her job in 2017 ended up that way. The goal of Chatman’s hiring as general manager and head coach three seasons ago was to reconstruct the Fever for the post-Tamika Catchings era. After a legend leaves, any team would need a few seasons to regain stability, and after Indiana finished 9-25 in 2017, there was no doubt they would be facing a protracted rebuild.
Nevertheless, after a successful 13–21 season, Catchings—who is currently the Fever’s vice president of basketball operations—couldn’t find enough progress in creating a winning culture to warrant Chatman’s continued employment. The Fever won four of their last six games, and young players like Teaira McCowan and Kelsey Mitchell showed remarkable progress. Despite the fact that executives and coaches have unequal schedules that tend to favor the higher-ups, Chatman had clearly earned more time at the helm.
Rather, it was Catchings’ assessments of the coaching staff that prompted the decision on Monday to fire the holdover Chatman and start the process of appointing a general manager and coach who Catchings preferred, while keeping an eye on the past.
During a Monday phone conference, Catchings stated, “You go through the whole season and you’re constantly evaluating and I think a lot of it has to do with the culture.” “A winning system is produced by a winning culture. Building on our previous culture and attempting to find a means to return to it is also a major priority for us.
The Fever, who won the 2012 WNBA Finals, were yearly title contenders with Catchings in the gold and navy. Catchings and Team President Allison Barber are working to assemble a team of executives, coaches, and players who can compete at a high level on a regular basis. In this instance, it meant examining previous connections that had developed through time and pushing forward with a fresh braintrust.
