Las Vegas – Before each match, Phoenix coach Mercury Nate Tibbetts remembers his late father, Fred. During the departure announcements of the alignment, Tibbetts thinks of telling his father how he hopes that the 3 points of Phoenix will fall, the importance of defending at a high level and hope for his father to monitor them within 40 minutes that followed.
Fred died of colon cancer in 2008. But Tibbetts said that he still felt the strength of his father.
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Tibbetts knows that he would not be where he is – coach in the WNBA final – without his father. His link with women’s basketball dates back to his childhood. Fred Tibbetts was one of the great coaches of all time in their native south Dakota, leading to the basketball of secondary girls for almost 30 years, first at Jefferson high school in Sioux Falls, then to Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School before retiring in 2005. He won more than 500 games, put a sequence of 111 years and recorded Seven indefective dishes.
“He asked his teams, his daughters, to fall in love with the gymnasium,” said Tibbetts, who is in his second year with Phoenix.
Call that a serendipity or just a coincidence in a complete circle, but as a tibbetts and mercury Prepare for match 2 of the 2025 finals On Sunday, they are looking at the head of one of the former opponents of the Fred high school.
Las Vegas AS coach Becky Hammon grew up through the state, Rapid City, SD, more than 300 miles west of the Tibbetts in Sioux Falls. In 1994, the Hammon’s Stevens High School team beat Roosevelt behind the 33 Hammon points.
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“I said that there was absolutely no way that she could mark 33,” said Fred Tibbetts, according to a story by the chief of Argus.
It was proven to be correct. The next time they played, Hammon scored 41 points in a dominant performance that led him to call him one of the best guards he ever seen.
“It is as entertaining as it is ever,” he added in the article. “It was like watching Magic Johnson.”
Hammon’s heritage grew up while progressing in high school, winning a grant in the state of Colorado before her WNBA career, where, despite her recovery, she has become a star six times and is considered one of the big big ones. Although Tibbetts, a former NBA assistant coach, did not know Hammon personally until she joined the San Antonio Spurs coaches in 2014, he had long known his legend.
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His parents liked to tell the story of Fred Coaching against the 6 -foot 6 inch goalkeeper.
“For me, southern Dakota is a special place since people support each other,” said Hammon.
In 2008, Tibbetts was first -year coach for the Skyforce of Sioux Falls of the NBA League. His first season coincided with the death of his father. Sport served as a stay, and he provided a community that has given him strength.
“I needed basketball to get this period to me,” said Tibbetts.
Tibbetts is convinced that his father would have loved his Phoenix team.
“It is quite in his style. Tenacious. Hard. Grande-Parole. Nothing easy. And then to sink freely offensively and a team that cares about each other,” said Tibbetts.
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Tibbetts and Hammon have said that their relationship has been strengthened in recent years. During the NBA 2020 bubble, Hammon Spurs remained in the same hotel as Tibbetts’s Trail Blazers. They regularly played the counter pickleball.
A small friendly competition has now made its way to a larger place.
“She was absolutely great for me to bounce things,” said Tibbetts. “We all continue what she did there.”
Tibbetts is the newcomer to the WNBA final. But with around 30 seconds in match 4 of the victory in the semi-finals of Phoenix on the Lynx of Minnesota, Tibbetts searched his family. He spotted them and thought not only of those present, but also of his father. Tibbetts, like his father, leads with joy, according to the assistant of Mercury Michael Joiner, who learned Fred as a player on the SkyForce in the mid -2000s.
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“I wouldn’t be there without him,” said Tibbetts. “I think my father would have been proud of me if I was a high school coach in Platte, in the southern Dakota.”
But he is rather on a larger scene.
“It would be super proud of that, to have Becky and I seated here by leading these two major organizations,” said Tibbetts. “It’s quite special.”
This article originally appeared in Athletics.
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