AAs an aspiring basketball coach in his teens and early 20s, Alex Sarama was often met with ridicule when he talked about the game he loved. For British-born Sarama, who was named head coach of the WNBA's newest expansion team, the Portland Fire, on Oct. 28, people doubted him even before he put the two sentences together.
“There was a lot of skepticism,” he told the Guardian. “Many coaches heard the accent and immediately said that this Alex doesn’t know how to coach!”
Sarama, however, was not going to be dissuaded.
“So that was great!” – he says with a laugh. “It gave me a real opportunity to go the extra mile to make sure I know my stuff meticulously. Because at the end of the day, the players don't care. The players just respect you if you're competent, if you make them better.”
Jokes aside, it's true. It's not every day you see a British basketball coach succeed in the US. But that's exactly what Sarama achieved. Although his homeland was never a basketball hotbed, he made a name for himself.
However, Sarama played football and tennis as a child. While basketball is a religion for many in the United States, it has never been more important in the UK. However, as he grew older, the game attracted Sarama.
“I think the fact that basketball wasn't as popular made me even more determined,” he says. “Even when all my friends were playing other sports.”
Indeed, where there is a will, there is a way.
“I think because basketball is less developed in the UK, it actually provided me with more unique opportunities to accelerate my coaching career,” says the 30-year-old, reflecting on his path. “When I was 15, I knew I would never be good enough to become a professional player. But I thought coaching would be the best way to make a career at the highest level.”
Needing an outlet, Sarama was a teenager when he founded his own basketball club, the Guildford Goldhawks. In just a few years he turned it into one of the largest youth teams in the United Kingdom. “We actually won the national under-14 girls championship,” he says. “This was my first experience coaching girls basketball.”
In his early 20s, Sarama continued his education at Nottingham University, studying history. He also coached – some players were almost twice his age. He gained important experience. “If I were in [a bigger basketball market like] In Serbia, Spain or Lithuania, I would never have had this chance to coach,” he says.
From there, he managed to make the jump to the highest level of basketball: the NBA. He worked in the league's international office, starting in London and then moving to Madrid and Antwerp. When he came to America, he worked in player development for the G-League's Rip City Remix before landing a job with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Resources in the UK are very different,” says Sarama. “Universities are not professional like in the US. For many universities it is more about participation rather than elite activity.”
But the Fire's new head coach says Britain does have a lot potential when it comes to hoops. When it comes to basketball, he even calls the country a “sleeping giant.” “I think there's a lot of potential among the players,” he says, “and some really good coaches who have good intentions. We just need to prioritize a lot more coaching education and development as a country.”
However, Sarama says he remains hopeful for the sport's growth.
“I think there's no reason why England couldn't become a great basketball nation,” he says. “It's going to take a lot of focused work to keep things moving in the right direction. One day I'd like to be a part of that and really initiate some positive change.”
As for his work in Fire, he definitely has his work cut out for him. Building an expansion team is not for the faint of heart. Sarama, author of the book, Transformation of basketballwill have to help build a franchise from the ground up in a league that is both growing and changing faster than anyone can predict. To do this, he will use several unique methods.
“We will have every The coach develops the players,” says Sarama, “using a common methodology, general principles of play and individual development plans that we have for each athlete. So, a strength coach is not just about going to the gym and warming up. They will be there for the entire practice, doing real basketball activities.”
Sarama says he looks for three things in his new job: courage, confidence and humility. He believes he is operating at the most exciting time in WNBA history. “I’m honored to come here at this moment,” he says. “Just the chance to expand the team is so unique. I could coach for the rest of my life and never be in this situation. A lot of times in an organization you have to unlearn previous processes.”
Sarama says he's going to introduce a lot of new “standard operating procedures.”
“We're going to document absolutely everything in the organization,” he says. “That includes checklists in every area, from how we build the culture of the game, to how we build the offense, to how we run film sessions, to how we give feedback to players, to what we do during timeouts. There will be a checklist for everything.”
One thing he'll certainly be keeping an eye on is his team's rivalry with a team a few hours north of Portland, the Seattle Storm, which is one of the successful teams in league history, with four championships to its name.
“I can say this is the game I'm looking forward to the most,” says Sarama. “It's going to be a very hyped game that I'm looking forward to… I watch a lot of basketball leagues around the world. And I really want to try to bring to the Fire the best ideas that I've been fortunate enough to learn from all these different places.”
