This time it’s good for James Wade. After ten years spent at the highest level of European and American women’s basketball, the former playmaker, naturalized French, will join the NBA.
While serving as GM and coach of the Chicago Sky in the WNBA, he had been allowed to speak with NBA teams during the season, and he finally accepted the offer of the Raptors where he will be assistant in the staff of Darko Rajakovic.
Double Euroleague winner with Yekaterinburg (2018-2019 as an assistant), WNBA coach of the year in 2019, WNBA champion in 2021, and WNBA manager of the year in 2022, James Wade can leave the world of women’s basketball with her head held high, even if her departure necessarily places Chicago in an embarrassment.
“It was relatively quick. It was an unexpected opportunity,” acknowledged Nadia Rawlinsonpresident of the board of directors and co-owner of the franchise, who named Emre Vatansever, assistant to James Wade since 2019, as successor to the position of coach-GM, as Chicago faces Indiana Fever this Sunday.
If the departure of James Wade was so sudden, it is because the Raptors should ask him to compose the staff who will supervise the team of Summer League in Las Vegas from next Friday.
