For Teresa Weatherspoon, mentoring the next generation of WNBA stars is a passion and privilege

When Teresa Weatherspoon agreed to be a general manager for this week’s WNBA All-Star Game, it wasn’t a case of the league calling in a Basketball Hall of Famer out of touch with today’s stars.

Instead, it’s adding a basketball figure who has mentored All-Stars such as Angel Reese, Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston, just as Weatherspoon’s imprint on this era of the WNBA grows.

“Even though you don’t see me coaching … my phone rings,” Weatherspoon said.

Weatherspoon, 60, has developed a reputation as a distinguished orator over the course of a coaching career that has spanned nearly two decades and includes stops in the NCAA, NBA, WNBA and Unrivaled. Beyond translating X’s and O’s, her heart-tugging conviction injects inspiration, and her words deliver motivation that ignites both her players and the fans who consume her sound bites online.

For Weatherspoon, whose eight-year playing career in the WNBA featured five All-Star Game appearances and two Defensive Player of the Year awards, mentorship is a personal passion, driven by a desire to uplift the next generation.

“I know that she’s always a call away if I need her or a text away and a flight away. If I told her that I need her ASAP to come out to Connecticut, she’d be there the next hour if she could,” said Connecticut Sun guard Saniya Rivers, who played for Weatherspoon in the Unrivaled 3×3 league earlier this year. “I’m just very fortunate to be able to have her in my circle and have her in my life.”

Joining the All-Star Game festivities as a general manager alongside fellow Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper was a no-brainer for Weatherspoon, who uses the opportunity to celebrate the WNBA’s history and the players she has championed to drive the league forward.

“It means everything,” Weatherspoon said.

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The ability to converse with others is something Weatherspoon calls a gift, and her conviction comes from personal experience.

“There’s plenty of things that I went through in my entire career. Some are very personal that you battle through,” Weatherspoon said. “You find a level of confidence, strength, resilience to get through them. And you just try to share that. 

“Once you hear what someone is going through — the majority of the time, for me, it’s almost as if I’ve already gone through that.”

Weatherspoon credits her family as her greatest mentors in her journey.

“I learned everything through them,” said Weatherspoon, a native of Pineland, Texas, and the youngest of six siblings. “I got an opportunity to see things, to know where I want to go, how I want to get there. I learned how to fight. I learned how to never give up. I learned how to understand there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dark it might seem. 

“Sometimes you don’t understand why you go through what you go through, but you battle through it no matter what. And that’s how I was raised. That’s what my mom and dad taught us. … That’s what I try to get across to our young people.”

Building strong relationships with players is paramount to Weatherspoon’s process. It’s a non-negotiable foundation that leads her to understand a player’s “why” and allows her to confidently engage in meaningful conversations. She implores players to dig past the surface level of her story and experiences, as that is where the most impactful lessons lie.

“I think she is able to separate sports, so to say, from just being a human in life. It’s her way of motivating you and the way that she’s able to speak words of literally everything — empowerment, encouragement — to you,” said Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby, who has played for Weatherspoon’s Vinyl Club in Unrivaled each of the past two years. “She has a way of making you believe in the person you are, more so than the player.”

Though her message’s tone may vary, what never changes is Weatherspoon’s commitment to never mince words with her players.

“One thing that I’m not going to do is sugarcoat. I’m going to give it to you straight. And it’s up to you to take that message … and then carry it,” Weatherspoon said. “They know whatever might come out of my mouth is for the good of them.” 

Weatherspoon said her phone is open 24/7 to any player who needs to reach her — and those conversations will always remain confidential.

“We just call and check in on each other,” Hamby said. ”You know, she’s shared a lot of things with her personal life and the family and vice versa. … More so, we check in on that area of our lives, just ask how we’re doing, and we let each other know that we love each other. We don’t even really talk basketball.”

Most importantly, Weatherspoon said, once she picks up the phone, she doesn’t plan on ending the call until she can address the problem.

“We’re not going to move from the conversation until we find a solution. We’re going to find a solution,” Weatherspoon said. “It’s beautiful. It’s amazing for me to know that no matter whether I’m coaching or not, I’m still coaching, because I’m having an opportunity to coach them in a different way.”

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For Weatherspoon, mentorship is also a two-way street. 

“It’s both of us. It’s all of us. That’s what we want to do is gain as much knowledge as we possibly can — all of us — to make it to where we want to be,” she said. “No matter how long I’ve done something or how much I’m into something, I’m going to always want more.”

When players Weatherspoon has coached find success, even after their direct player-coach relationship ends, those are moments she deems priceless.

One such example is New York Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, whom Weatherspoon coached while she was an assistant on the New Orleans Pelicans staff. Alvarado has previously credited Weatherspoon with instilling in him the mindset that he belonged at the NBA level, even when he didn’t believe that himself.

“He would walk up to me and say, ‘Do you think that I belong here?’ Finally, I turned around and looked at him and said, ‘If you ask that question to me again, you don’t need to put on a uniform,’” Weatherspoon said.

“It’s just a matter of constantly pouring into him. When there was a little bit of doubt, I wanted to keep pouring into him or pulling that doubt away from him. … I wanted him to understand the difference in who he is and what he brings.”

That made watching Alvarado win an NBA championship with the New York Knicks this summer a special experience for Weatherspoon.

“Now look at my guy,” Weatherspoon said. “My little brother, Jose Alvarado, is a freaking champion. [He has his] name on a street in New York City. That’s, man — what else could you ask for? You’re talking about a very proud moment.”

Weatherspoon, who hasn’t coached in the WNBA since 2024, has used her role as an on-air analyst to create another pathway to reach the league’s players.

In April, she was announced as a studio analyst for WNBA on Prime. She has excelled in breaking down and teaching the intricacies of the game, but she shines when she has the opportunity to speak with players one-on-one.

“She doesn’t judge players. She lets players be themselves and speak,” said WNBA on Prime co-analyst Tamera “Ty” Young, a WNBA veteran who served as an assistant on Weatherspoon’s coaching staff with the Chicago Sky. “She listens to understand. That’s what makes players comfortable to be able to talk to her. They know that she’s going to listen to them and hear them out before she gives her word of advice or to help them.”

Whether through the WNBA or Unrivaled, Weatherspoon has established relationships and a sense of familiarity with a wide array of the top players in the world. As an analyst, when she greets players postgame, an ease overcomes them as they recognize Weatherspoon on the other end — it is a sense of safety.

“That’s the feeling that I get every single time as well. That’s what I want them to feel,” Weatherspoon said. “I got you, no matter what the conversation is about to be. … It’s beautiful for me, because if I say, ‘Hey, you guys, this is T-Spoon,’ and I see the smile on their face. That’s enough for me. It lets me know that there’s something positive that I’m leaving with our young people, and that’s important.”

For the All-Star Game, Weatherspoon will step into Wintrust Arena, the home court of the Chicago Sky, the team she coached for the 2024 WNBA season.

The Sky went 13-27 under Weatherspoon, and she was fired in September 2024 after just one year leading the team. The firing was viewed as controversial by many who believed Weatherspoon was not given a fair opportunity in Chicago, but she said she wouldn’t be focused on that storyline during the All-Star Game.

“For me, it’s just going into another game, another opportunity to be a part of the W. It just so happens to be in Chicago,” she said. “I don’t take anything away from what I had. I got to meet some incredible people there in Chicago, and it will be great to put my eyes on them again.”

As far as the game, Weatherspoon and Cooper have indulged in a playfully competitive back-and-forth as the teams they drafted prepare to square off this weekend.

For the longtime friends, both of whom played pivotal roles in jump-starting the early years of the WNBA and starred in its first All-Star Game in 1999, the chance to celebrate how far the league has come is the most important victory.

“It’s a huge positive for me, because I truly love playing the game of basketball. I want to be an example of how it should be played at all times,” Weatherspoon said. “But for your life to be impactful to another life, that’s a championship win for me.”