In a bit of surprising news given the lack of rumors or reports around it, the Sparks have made a big hire.
Following a search led by Farhan Zaidi, special advisor to owner Mark Walter, LA will hire Sixers vice president of player personnel Ariana Andonian as the team’s new general manager, as reported by Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic.
After navigating recent months without a general manager, including the trade deadline, after parting ways with Reagan Pebley midseason, the Sparks will now have a new face set to lead them into another intriguing offseason. This hire also follows the franchise’s recent track record of bringing in executives from outside the league, as Merchant detailed.
This is the third executive hire the Sparks have made out of the NBA in the past year. They hired assistant general managers Zach Knowlton and Nate Nielsen from the Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively, before the 2026 season.
According to Merchant, Andonian has worked in multiple NBA front offices. While she’s been in Philadelphia for the last two seasons, she spent seven years between the Rockets and Grizzlies before that. While with the Sixers, she also served as the general manager of the team’s G League side.
Andonian is not just an LA native, but also grew up a Lakers fan, as she discussed in a profile last October by Gina Mizell of the Inquirer.
It is a notable step for Andonian, who can trace her passion for basketball back to growing up in Los Angeles during the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant era — and in an Armenian family and community that was “super obsessed” with the sport.
“There was a point where it was a little bit more than just a fandom,” Andonian said. “I think people were like, ‘Wow, she really likes to know what’s going on.'”
The whole article is worth a read as it provides plenty of insight into her journey in basketball, from an internship with Daryl Morey and the Rockets, a scouting role with Duke men’s basketball while she was getting her MBA and time with the Grizzlies when they were the young, fun, upstart team in the NBA.
It paints a picture of a very experienced person the Sparks are hiring. While she doesn’t have WNBA experience, she has plenty of experience at multiple levels, which is encouraging for a franchise looking to finally get back to contention.
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