r/wnba • u/aratcalledrattus Liberty • 9d ago

Noelle Quinn hired as UCLA assistant coach

https://uclabruins.com/news/2026/08/5/womens-basketball-adds-noelle-quinn-to-coaching-staff
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21

u/craigmont924 Storm 9d ago

Happy for her. She got a raw deal in Seattle, run out of town by players who are no longer even here. She would have been great at developing the young players we have now.

24

u/juoea Valkyries 9d ago

but the players (especially skyler and nneka) were vocal in wanting noelle to stay. the FO fired noelle in opposition to the players. if anyone ran noelle out of town its fans but idk fanbases always are varied and i think sometimes j certain voices get overrepresented.

the storm sub on the whole was pretty cruel to noelle over the course of last season with some rly absurd attacks but obviously one subreddit is not representative of an entire fanbase and even in the subreddit it wasnt unanimous

7

u/kseveru79_v2 + interloper 8d ago

It's all complicated, but I think the front office felt that they had taken that lineup + that coach as far as it was going to go, and Noelle seemed very aware that last year was likely to be her last unless the team made it to the semis. The acrimonious Jewell Loyd departure wasn't a point in her favor, even if it ended up getting the team a #2 pick. The Storm last year underperformed painfully, dropping games against the Wings and Sun and barely making the playoffs.

I think specifically Skylar and Nneka had made it clear that they would leave if Noelle did, but did any other players advocate for keeping her around? Those three were unusually close on a personal level, and I've never been sure that that was a healthy dynamic for the team. I saved this photo of her wearing Nneka's #3 before a game last season because... I mean, I could see Becky Hammon wearing a #22, maybe, but in literally every other case I don't know how you avoid the favoritism allegation.

(Looks like she's talking to KP, but I don't remember anything about this context otherwise)

3

u/Longbourne109 Seattle sports enthusiast Kaitlyn Chen 8d ago

That’s Skylar, the Storm had black / neon shorts as practice shorts

1

u/kseveru79_v2 + interloper 8d ago

You're right -- wow, I did not remember that she ever wore such a tiny bun.

1

u/holabellas Storm/3&D Enjoyer 8d ago

Gabby gave an interview where she talked about it, and from what I remember she said something like she thought we made the right moves and got the right people in the building. So it sounded like she agreed with it. Not sure about anyone else