[BillBradley]

In the NYT article, Tara said: "Know that if your senior leaders are unhappy, your whole team will be. . . .". 

Leadership is of the utmost importance in all team sports and it's a very, very difficult thing to teach. We've all heard the expression "natural born leaders". I don't think Haley was a very good leader, and let's be clear - the 2022-2023 team was Haley's team. We all have our opinions, and that's mine. You can be a great player (she was), a great friend (she was), and even a great teammate (she probably was). That doesn't mean you are a great leader. If Betts or Nivar or Prechtel or whoever else on the team were unhappy, your team leader needs to take part in addressing it. I think this is where Haley stumbled. My guess is she 1) wanted to be everyone's friend 2) liked to commisserate instead of solve and 3) perhaps enjoyed the attention and drama a little too much. In the end, it turned into a bunch of talented players who weren't on the same page, and you could see it on the court. Desperate to win, but they weren't together. 

All that said, I don't think Haley is to blame for her team's underachievement. I look at it more like it was a maturity thing and a skill void vs. her being toxic. I do believe she cared a lot for the team and the program. 

Tara has taken some of the accountability for last year, multiple times in interviews. I would have liked Haley and Lauren to own up to some of it, too. That would have been the mature thing to do. Even something like "I feel badly about how things went...". Instead, they just tell each other how great the other one is, giggle about secrets...just rubbed me wrong, especially given how it was such a terrible experience for Lauren. Listening to them talk is an indication of why they couldn't get through the problems last year.

[BillBradley]

In the NYT article, Tara said: "Know that if your senior leaders are unhappy, your whole team will be. . . .". 

Leadership is of the utmost importance in all team sports and it's a very, very difficult thing to teach. We've all heard the expression "natural born leaders". I don't think Haley was a very good leader, and let's be clear - the 2022-2023 team was Haley's team. We all have our opinions, and that's mine. You can be a great player (she was), a great friend (she was), and even a great teammate (she probably was). That doesn't mean you are a great leader. If Betts or Nivar or Prechtel or whoever else on the team were unhappy, your team leader needs to take part in addressing it. I think this is where Haley stumbled. My guess is she 1) wanted to be everyone's friend 2) liked to commisserate instead of solve and 3) perhaps enjoyed the attention and drama a little too much. In the end, it turned into a bunch of talented players who weren't on the same page, and you could see it on the court. Desperate to win, but they weren't together. 

All that said, I don't think Haley is to blame for her team's underachievement. I look at it more like it was a maturity thing and a skill void vs. her being toxic. I do believe she cared a lot for the team and the program. 

Tara has taken some of the accountability for last year, multiple times in interviews. I would have liked Haley and Lauren to own up to some of it, too. That would have been the mature thing to do. Even something like "I feel badly about how things went...". Instead, they just tell each other how great the other one is, giggle about secrets...just rubbed me wrong, especially given how it was such a terrible experience for Lauren. Listening to them talk is an indication of why they couldn't get through the problems last year.