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📍PORTLAND, Ore. — Sometimes, everything comes together at the perfect time.
Jordan Harrison had already found herself back in the Fire's rotation over the last week as Alex Sarama continued to search for solutions to the void created in the backcourt by Sarah Ashlee Barker's season-ending ACL tear. With Teja Oblak also banged up, Harrison played 11 minutes in Thursday's win over the Toronto Tempo, finishing with eight points, four assists and three steals as the Fire won their first game since July 16.
Two nights later, with Carla Leite exiting early from the Fire's Saturday win over the Seattle Storm with a left knee sprain, Harrison had to do even more. She started the second half in Leite's place and played 28 minutes, scoring a career-high 13 points and, most impressively given her size, picked up seven rebounds.
These two games were the fifth and sixth ones Harrison has appeared in since the Fire brought her back on a developmental contract in late May. The limit for developmental players is 12 games, and they were going to need to burn the other six coming up, especially if Leite misses time with the knee injury.
The other fortunate bit of timing for Harrison: hours before the win over Seattle, the Fire announced that they had suspended Luisa Geiselsöder's contract for the rest of the season to allow their little-used third-string center to leave the team to get ready to play for the German national team in next month's FIBA World Cup. This opened up a roster spot, at the exact time they needed to find room to keep Harrison.
The Fire announced on Sunday afternoon that they have officially converted Harrison to a standard WNBA contract, making her available for the rest of the season.
Harrison's breakout week is one of the Fire's biggest developmental success stories in a season full of them. After going undrafted out of West Virginia in April, she came to the Fire's first-ever training camp and ended up making the opening-night roster. They waived her following the first game of the season in order to activate Kamiah Smalls from injury, but brought her back later in May when they had a developmental roster spot open.
Since then, she's appeared sporadically in games, until the injury to Leite forced Sarama's hand.
"She’s been ready," Bridget Carleton said after the win over Seattle. "She’s a baller. She’s fearless. Obviously, she’s undersized, but seven rebounds. She was just all over the place. That’s who she is, that’s who she’s been in practice. And I’m proud of her for getting to do it when the lights are on."
Harrison set herself apart with her defensive tenacity, but the biggest roadblock to a long-term WNBA future could be her size. She's listed at 5-foot-6; in reality, she's probably closer to 5-foot-2.
Whenever she plays, it's glaringly obvious she's the smallest player on the court. But whenever she plays, she makes an impact, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
"There’s no doubt that she has a place in this league,” Sarama said on Saturday night. “And what I think is most exciting is ... the defense picking up full [court]. And we didn’t see that tonight because of the game plan and what our defensive covers are. But there’s a lot of unique things I’m gonna be able to do with Jordan defensively."
The Fire now have one of their two developmental spots open. The other belongs to Sania Faigen, who is out for the season with a torn ACL.
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