Los Angeles Sparks look to return to winning ways with revamped vision and retooled roster

LOS ANGELES — Gold banners hang from the ceiling, one for each of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 17 world championships. White decals with the jersey numbers of Lakers Hall of Famers line the black walls along the baselines. Abdul-Jabbar. Chamberlain. Bryant. O’Neal. The aura of championships is inescapable. Even NBA legend and Los Angeles Sparks co-owner Magic Johnson stopped by camp and pulled up a chair.

The Sparks — who held their first two weeks of training camp at the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, the Lakers’ state-of-the-art practice facility — have their own storied history with three WNBA titles. But this proximity to greatness isn’t so much aspirational as a reminder that winning is the standard in Los Angeles — and that both local scrutiny and outside hostility is more prominent here than anywhere else.

“We’re a Showtime team. That’s what L.A. is known for, Showtime,” Sparks guard Brittney Sykes said. “But they get the job done as well. We can’t just be Showtime and then be out here losing.”

Losing came more frequently than usual for the Sparks in 2021, their first season following the free-agency departures of Chelsea Gray and two-time MVP Candace Parker, who up to that point had spent her entire WNBA career in Los Angeles. Riddled with injuries and searching for a new identity, the Sparks finished 12-20 and missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, just the third time since 1999.

Entering the second season of the post-Parker era, and Derek Fisher’s fourth since coming aboard as head coach, the Sparks readily admit they are in “rebirth” mode. They entered this past offseason with a renewed urgency to get the franchise back to its winning…