Syracuse, N.Y. — During her interview with John Wildhack, Mykala Walker learned that the Syracuse athletic director wants to financially commit to winning a national championship.
For the last year and a half, SU women’s basketball head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said her program was looking to hire a general manager, but the candidates they interviewed weren’t prepared to take the team to the level she envisioned.
Then Walker interviewed for the position. Legette-Jack thought she brought a “ready mindset” and that Syracuse was getting the “right fit at the right time.”
On Oct. 13, Walker was hired as the first general manager in SU women’s basketball history, three weeks before tipping off its season.
“(Wildhack) said he wants to win a championship, so that’s what we’re gonna go out and do,” Walker told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
Hiring Walker marks a significant shift for a program determined to stay competitive in college basketball’s rapidly evolving landscape. As the transfer portal and pay-for-play continue to reshape college sports, Walker will act as a liaison for scouting, recruiting and budgeting to help build a roster capable of winning the program’s first national championship.
While she acknowledged Syracuse is a basketball school committed to investing in women’s sports, Walker didn’t specify how much money is being allocated toward the program.
However, Walker did say that the Orange is planning to supplement its revenue share money with booster- and business-backed pay to ensure it gets “the best players possible.”
Walker joins Syracuse after stints on the coaching staffs at Georgetown (2014-17), Delaware (2017-22) and Arizona State (2022-25). She most recently served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with the Sun Devils. Additionally, she was a four-year rotation player at Wake Forest from 2009-13.
Walker credits her role at ASU with providing her valuable experience in coaching and recruiting within college basketball’s new landscape. While at Arizona State, Walker explained that she understood the landscape of college athletics and where it was going.
At ASU, however, she said she lacked the resources to formulate a championship roster, which taught her to adopt a “Moneyball” mindset.
In the back of her mind, Walker has always wanted to be a WNBA general manager. As a graduate student at Georgetown (she graduated in 2016), one of her professors was Tommy Sheppard, a former executive with the Washington Wizards.
From speaking with Sheppard and learning from him in his class, Walker decided she wanted to be a general manager one day. Yet after graduating, her career path took a turn because she realized she wanted to stay on the court.
Throughout her college basketball playing and coaching career, Walker has been connected with Natasha Adair, who’s now in her first year as Syracuse’s associate head coach.
They originally met because Adair was an assistant coach throughout Walker’s tenure with the Demon Deacons, and Walker joined Adair’s staff at Georgetown, Delaware and Arizona State.
After Adair was fired after three years at ASU last March and joined Legette-Jack’s staff later that spring, she pitched Walker on the open GM role at Syracuse.
Walker didn’t think she was ready.
So, over the summer, she spent her time traveling to meet with executives and coaches around the NBA, WNBA and NBA G League.
Her head coach at Wake Forest, Mike Peterson, is an advisor for the Atlanta Dream, which led her to spend a lot of time around the franchise. Walker mentioned Dream general manager Dan Padover as the first person who was influential in her process throughout the summer.
She highlighted Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Nate McMillan and Los Angeles Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley. Additionally, she mentioned Denver Nuggets executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace and NBA G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim, among others.
Throughout the summer, Walker said she turned down “a lot of jobs” that didn’t fit where she wanted to go. She highlighted that she interviewed for a player personnel role with the Phoenix Mercury but noted it “wasn’t really fitting.”
“By the time that I had really started to talk about this job with Coach Jack, I thought I was really ready for it, and jumped at the opportunity,” Walker said.
With where she is in her career, Walker felt the Orange’s general manager position made the most sense. Having been a coach for the last 12 years, she wasn’t completely ready to get away from that; she’ll sit on SU’s bench during games when she’s not on the recruiting trail.
While she’ll get a taste of being on the bench, Walker said her main responsibility is to handle administrative duties so coaches can focus solely on coaching. While they do that, Walker can handle recruiting, the money aspect and dealing with talent and monetary evaluations.
Walker viewed the opening with the Orange as ahead of the curve compared to other schools because they were looking for someone who understands college basketball’s landscape, knows how to recruit and knows what college basketball looks like.
At other programs around the country, Walker explained that some schools are looking for a general manager who solely focuses on bringing in name, image and likeness deals and corporate sponsorships.
Walker said joining Syracuse was the perfect opportunity for her to transition into a general manager role but still showcase all of the skills she can bring to the table.
Though Walker’s long-term goal is to become a WNBA general manager, she said she doesn’t view the Syracuse position as merely a stepping stone. She said she is committed to staying put and building something meaningful
As SU looks to rebound from its 12-18 campaign last year, its worst since Legette-Jack took over as head coach in 2022 following back-to-back seasons with 20 or more wins, Walker will be a crucial part of building it back into a national contender.
That pursuit won’t stop until she helps deliver a roster that wins a championship.