Alex Sarama

Last updated
Alex Sarama
Portland Fire
PositionHead Coach
League WNBA
Career history
Coaching
2023-24 Rip City Remix (Director of Player Development)
2024-present Cleveland Cavaliers (Director of Player Development)

Alex Sarama is a British basketball coach, who is director of player development and an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. He has been appointed head coach of the WNBA's Portland Fire, beginning in 2026. [1] He has also worked with the London Lions, NBA EMEA, Paris Basketball, and the Rip City Remix. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Alex Sarama is originally from Guildford, England. [3] He studied history at the University of  Nottingham. [4]

Career

Sarama began working in Europe, including a role with the NBA Europe office in Madrid, where he helped deliver basketball initiatives for the league in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. [4] He also spent time with College Basket Borgomanero in Italy where he began applying an ecological/constraints-led training philosophy. [3]

Sarama worked for the London Lions of the British Basketball League. [5] He worked as director of player development for the inaugural season (2023-24) of the Rip City Remix, the NBA G League team affiliated with the Portland Trail Blazers. [6]

He is assistant coach and head of player development for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA. [3]

Portland Fire

In October 2025, Sarama was named the first head coach of the Portland Fire, an expansion franchise in the WNBA set to debut in 2026. [5] [6] The hiring was described as aligning with the team’s vision of adopting an evidence-based, innovation-driven culture:

“Alex represents the next generation of coaching… his approach to player development, grounded in evidence-based science, research and creativity, aligns with our vision to make Portland a global hub for innovation in women’s sports.” — GM Vanja Černivec [6]

Coaching philosophy

Sarama is an advocate of the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) to skill acquisition and practice design — a methodology that emphasises decision-making, adaptability and game-representative environments instead of traditional, isolated drills. [7] His book Transforming Basketball was published in April 2024. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Merchant, Sabreena (2025-10-17). "WNBA's Portland Fire name Cavs' assistant Alex Sarama first coach in team history". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-10-17.
  2. ↑ "Portland Fire names Alex Sarama as first head coach, team to begin play next season". Toronto Star. 2025-10-17. Retrieved 2025-10-17.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Alex Sarama". transformingball.com. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "BESTIN THE WEST COACHING CONFERENCE" (PDF). Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  5. 1 2 "Portland Fire names Alex Sarama as first head coach". opb.org. October 21, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 Peterson, Anne M. (October 17, 2025). "Portland Fire names Alex Sarama as first head coach, team to begin play next season". The Washington Post.
  7. ↑ Shelburne, Ramona (October 17, 2025). "Fire hire Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama as 1st head coach". ESPN.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.