Los Angeles Sparks Derek Fisher, the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, was sacked on Tuesday, just 12 games

into the 2022 WNBA season. The Sparks, who have won three WNBA championships and are one of the league's three original

franchises, began this summer's campaign with the goal of making the playoffs for the first time in a decade after

missing out last season. Instead, they're 5-7 during the first third of their 2022 regular-season schedule, which has

included nine games on the road so far.  Los Angeles has named assistant coach Fred Williams as interim head

coach, with the team not playing again until Saturday's home game against the Las Vegas Aces. Before that

we discuss Fisher's coaching legacy in Los Angeles, the timing of his firing, how the Sparks will go on, and what's

next for the team after the WNBA's second big coaching change of the season (the Indiana Fever fired Marianne

Stanley in late May).  Fisher's departure from the Sparks in 2022 wasn't entirely unexpected. Some felt that his fourth

year as president was a make-or-break year. The storied team had already begun a new chapter in the front office

with the recent hiring of new president Vanessa Shay to supervise business operations; now it will extend

to the basketball level. It was even more remarkable that the change took place so early in the season. The Sparks 5-7

record was disappointing for a squad that had embraced the tagline "time to show" in an attempt to return to