{"id":1043981,"date":"2026-09-05T01:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T01:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043981\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T01:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T01:22:47","slug":"from-the-nba-to-the-wnba-ariana-andonian-takes-over-as-the-sparks-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043981\/","title":{"rendered":"From the NBA to the WNBA: Ariana Andonian takes over as the Sparks’ GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> have hired a new general manager from the NBA<\/a> ranks.<\/p>\n

Ariana Andonian will officially join the organization next month, the Sparks said Friday. She replaces Raegan Pebley, who was fired in mid-July after 2 1\/2 years.<\/p>\n

The Sparks (15-25) are headed toward a sixth consecutive losing season. The organization owns three WNBA<\/a> championships, but none since 2016.<\/p>\n

Andonian, 31, has been general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats, the NBA G League affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers, while also serving as the 76ers\u2019 vice president of player personnel. <\/p>\n

While Pebley had no previous executive experience, Andonian has spent over 10 years working in basketball operations, scouting, player personnel and talent evaluation across the NBA and NBA G League.<\/p>\n

\u201cAriana has distinguished herself throughout her career as an exceptional evaluator of talent and a thoughtful, forward-thinking basketball executive,\u201d Sparks managing partner and governor Eric Holoman said in a statement. \u201cShe has earned the respect of some of the best basketball minds in the game, but what stood out to us throughout this process was her vision for building a team and an organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andonian is a California native who graduated from the University of Southern California<\/a>. She earned an MBA from Duke University, where she worked directly with Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski and current head coach Jon Scheyer as a player personnel consultant for the men\u2019s basketball program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear to me throughout this process that the Sparks ownership group is committed to delivering for our fans,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cMy goal as GM is to build a culture of excellence centered around great people, strong processes and doing everything within our power to best support our players on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andonian joined the 76ers in 2024 as vice president of player personnel, where she ran the organization\u2019s professional scouting group and co-led its extended scouting efforts. She was named GM of the Delaware Blue Coats last year.<\/p>\n

Andonian began her NBA career with the Houston Rockets<\/a> in 2015. In four seasons, she worked in basketball operations and scouting, becoming the NBA\u2019s only female scout at the time and ultimately helping coordinate the Rockets\u2019 scouting group.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Andonian joined the Memphis Grizzlies, where she spent four seasons and advanced to director of player personnel. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

https:\/\/AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 The Los Angeles Sparks have hired a new general manager from the NBA ranks.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":999469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[2076,1488,1260,62,67,132,68,9446,12860],"class_list":["post-1043981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-college-basketball","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-usc-trojans","tag-womens-national-basketball-association"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117215822609177430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}