Tanisha Wright’s time with the Atlanta Dream is over.
The Dream announced Wednesday afternoon it had fired Wright after three seasons leading the franchise. The announcement came days after the Dream were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs.
“Tanisha was an important contributor in our efforts to rebuild the Dream, and we want to thank her for her hard work and dedication to the Dream over the last three seasons and wish her the best in the future,” general manager Dan Padover said in a statement. “At this time, we believe a change is needed to lead our players and organization to the next chapter in our efforts to be a top team in the WNBA.”
Wright was hired ahead of the 2022 campaign after a short run as an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces. She was hired to replace both Mike Petersen and Darius Taylor, who split the 2021 campaign as the Dream’s head coach after the organization parted with Nicki Collen the year before.
Wright led the Dream to double-digit wins in each of her three seasons, which is something the organization hadn’t seen since 2018, but she failed to mount a winning record. The Dream have had just one season over .500 in the past decade.
The Dream went 15-25 this season and reached the playoffs for the second straight season, but they were knocked out of the first round by the New York Liberty. The Liberty swept their opening-round series 2-0, too.
In total, Wright went 48-68 in her run as the Dream’s head coach.
The Dream will now start searching for a replacement. They are the third team in the league to split with their coach this season. The Los Angeles Sparks fired Curt Miller after two seasons, and the Chicago Sky split with Teresa Weatherspoon after just a single season.