It was one of the highlights of her life, and it was taken abruptly away from her.
But Denise Taylor held a press conference Monday, one week after she was fired as Utah Starzz coach, to say all the right things and let everyone know she's fine and still supremely confident of her coaching abilities.Asked if she wanted to find another coaching job in the WNBA, she said, "I want to coach in the NBA. I know I can coach." She cited 14 years' experience and called coaching her life's passion.
Before a small gathering - half friends and half media - Monday afternoon at Little America Hotel, Taylor admitted she'd spent part of the last week "meditating with family and friends" about the turn of events that surprised and disappointed her, but she also said she spent part of the week watching WNBA games, working out and going to Wendover.
"It's an honor to be succeeded by an icon like Frank Layden," she said, adding she's going to take the first real vacation of her coaching career soon in Hawaii, courtesy of coach Pete Newell, who invited her to come to his famous "big men's camp" there.
"I'm going to lay out and get a suntan," she said, drawing laughs from friends including some of Jazz free agent Antoine Carr's family, the Rev. France Davis and singer B. Murphy.
Taylor said she's already gotten some calls about possible employment.
She also said she might hang around Utah and see if she can go skiing without dislocating a shoulder. She skied twice last winter and wound up in an arm-sling for a time.
She thanked Utah's people for embracing her, in particular Jazz/Starzz personnel Larry H. Miller, Tim Howells, Scott Layden and Frank Layden "for giving me the opportunity to be part of history. I learned and gained from the franchise," she said.
"I will always be a No. 1 Starzz fan. I would like to play for Frank, as a matter of fact. I might go start working out.
Taylor added she had "picked his brain" for help when she was coaching the Starzz, a group she says is talented but still very inexperienced.
Because Utah had all along followed a building-for-the-future policy, Taylor was surprised to be dismissed. "Everything I'd read was they would be patient with a young team that was jelling. The future was bright," she said.
Then she was called into Scott Layden's office the morning of July 27 and told they'd decided to take things "in another direction." Her initial reaction? "I thanked them for the opportunity," she said.
Director of basketball operations Scott Layden said she had acted "very professionally" at that difficult moment. She later told assistant Fred Williams she'd have no hard feelings if he wanted to stay on Frank Layden's staff, which he did, and she called each player to encourage them.
"No bitterness," she said. "No, I'm a child of God. Do you think I'm going to be mad at Him? . . . My grandmother would turn over in her grave.
"I am totally confident of who I am," Taylor said, adding she will still attend some Starzz games, cheer for them and feel a swell of pride when she sees little girls wearing WNBA-replica jerseys of their favorite players because when she was growing up, there were no female players to idolize.