Michael Cooper

Basketball star Lisa Leslie may not be retiring just yet, not until after this upcoming Sparks season, but her announcement was time for those around her to reflect and make historical comparisons. "I get a chance to see three of the best retire," Sparks Coach Michael Cooper said. "And be alongside of them, to play with them, and to coach: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and now Lisa Leslie." His nickname for her was "Smooth." "I've always said this young lady is like three people," he said.

Sparks Coach Michael Cooper is having discussions with USC about becoming the Trojans' women's basketball coach, Sparks co-owner Carla Christofferson confirmed today. "From our perspective, he's under contract to coach our season," Christofferson said. "We've confirmed with him he's coaching our 2009 season." The WNBA regular season runs from June through mid-September. USC's regular season starts in mid-November.

Sparks Coach Michael Cooper will leave the team at the end of this season to take over USC's women's basketball team, the school announced Friday, bringing to an end weeks of speculation. "It's something I couldn't pass up," Cooper said. "But my focus, heart and energy is helping the Sparks win another championship." Cooper, 53, the former Lakers standout, won WNBA titles with the Sparks in 2001 and 2002.

The tone seemed inappropriate when Sparks Coach Michael Cooper entered a postgame news conference after a loss with a beaming grin. "What a game!" he said following the Sparks' 103-94 Game 1 defeat Wednesday to the Phoenix Mercury in the Western Conference finals. "As Pat Riley would say, the playoffs start when one team wins on another team's floor. We're going to head down to Phoenix for two games, and we're going to go down there and get this first one." That begins tonight at Phoenix's U.S. Airways Arena in a potential elimination game for the Sparks, who league general managers predicted would win the league title.

Detroit Shock Coach Bill Laimbeer was describing the similarities in style between his WNBA team and the Detroit Pistons, where he bumped, banged and scowled for 14 seasons. He then made comparisons between the Sparks and the Lakers teams of the 1980s, when Sparks Coach Michael Cooper made a name for himself as a feisty Lakers veteran.

There is more than one Staples Center dweller capable of rehiring a coach with a championship-littered past who has hopes of adding more. Two years after Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers, the Sparks are on the verge of rehiring Michael Cooper, who led the team to WNBA championships in 2001 and 2002. "There's a good chance of it happening soon and it feels damn good to be reconnecting with L.A.

This is \o7not\f7 how Michael Cooper planned it. The former Laker, boasting a resume dotted with championships and wearing his ambition on his sleeve, did not expect to be back coaching the Sparks. Not now. Maybe not ever again. When he bolted the WNBA team midway through the 2004 season to accept a three-year contract as a Denver Nuggets assistant, Cooper believed that landing his dream job -- NBA head coach -- was only a matter of time.

Sparks Coach Michael Cooper couldn't contain his anger, much as the Sparks could not contain the New York Liberty. The Sparks will be going back to the drawing board today, facing perhaps an hours-long practice session, and Cooper's wrath after their newfound defense fell apart and the sharp-shooting New York Liberty made 10 of 21 shots from three-point range and dropped the Sparks for an 80-68 loss in front of an announced crowd of 8,031 Friday night at Staples Center.

Michael Cooper spent most of his first game as an NBA head coach sitting on the bench, hoping the nervousness he felt inside wouldn't filter out onto the floor. Apparently, Cooper learned a little about acting in all those years in Los Angeles playing for the Lakers and coaching the Sparks.

Michael Cooper returns to Staples Center tonight, this time as the Denver Nuggets' coach, an interim position that could become less temporary if the Nuggets finally live up to expectations that developed after their first playoff appearance in 10 years. Cooper, selected to the all-defensive team eight times in 12 seasons as a Laker, has tried to create a defense-first mentality on the Nuggets.