Inside the Phoenix Mercury’s decision to hire new coach Vanessa Nygaard

PHOENIX — As Phoenix Mercury president Vince Kozar walked toward the security checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport the morning of Jan. 5, the masked agent checking IDs and boarding passes looked familiar.

He had a 9:46 a.m. flight, and Kozar was hoping no one would notice him. As Kozar moved to the front of the line, it dawned on him: The TSA agent also worked security for Mercury games at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.

She recognized Kozar.

“Are you and Mr. Pitman going to find our next head coach?” she asked.

Moments earlier, Mercury general manager Jim Pitman had had a similar interaction with the same agent. Kozar thought their cover was blown.

The agent, along with every other Mercury fan and employee, knew they were looking for a head coach. Kozar was sure their trip would end up on message boards and all over #WNBATwitter.

“It was this clandestine trip that just the two of us were making, and then it was, ‘Here’s this person that knows,'” Kozar said with a laugh.

Kozar and Pitman were headed to New Orleans to interview Pelicans assistant Teresa Weatherspoon, one of four finalists for the Mercury’s vacant head-coaching job. It was one of the most stressful moments in the Mercury’s coaching search, which lasted 44 days and included more than 20 candidates, hours of phone calls and meetings, and four in-person interviews — and culminated with Monday’s introduction of Vanessa Nygaard as the franchise’s 10th head coach.

THE MERCURY’S SEARCH didn’t start in earnest until Dec. 7, the day after it was announced that coach Sandy Brondello’s contract wouldn’t be renewed after eight seasons.

Pitman sat in his office on the 200 level of the Footprint Center and started compiling a list of potential replacements. He relied on his 25 years of WNBA…