Ariana Andonian leaving the Blue Coats to become Los Angeles Sparks general manager
The job will bring Andonian, a Los Angeles native who grew up a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan, closer to home.
The WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks have plucked their new general manager from the 76ers front office.
The Sparks are hiring Blue Coats general manager Ariana Andonian for the role, a source confirmed.
Andonian came to the Sixers under former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey. Though she’s only 31 years old, she has had an extensive career working in college and the NBA, including stints under Morey with the Sixers and under Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman. She also consulted for Duke’s program while earning a graduate degree from the school, according to an Inquirer profile of Andonian from 2025.
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The job will bring Andonian, a Los Angeles native who grew up a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan, closer to home. Andonian first met Morey while in college at Southern Cal when she gave his daughter a tour of the USC campus and later joined the family for lunch.
After that meeting, Andonian earned an internship with the Houston Rockets when Morey was the general manager there. She began as a scout and was coordinating the team’s college scouting group by age 23. A 2017 story from Bleacher Report cited her as the league’s only female scout at the time.
Andonian’s career went from there to Duke, where she led the team’s high school scouting group while completing her MBA. She cites former coach Mike Krzyzewski and current coach Jon Scheyer as mentors.
“It was almost like I had to tell her when she had to stop watching video,” Morey told The Inquirer of Andonian in 2025. “… She picked up things quick and fit into a group.”
