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After Monday's practice, the Fire announced that they've waived rookie point guard Jordan Harrison and activated veteran shooting guard Kamiah Smalls. Smalls missed training camp with a left knee injury and had her contract temporarily suspended to start the season. As she gets ready to return, the Fire needed to waive a player to open up a roster spot in order to activate her.
Harrison made the roster out as a training-camp invitee after going undrafted out of West Virginia. She played 11 minutes in the Fire's season-opening loss to the Chicago Sky on Saturday, putting up four points and four assists.
In a short time, Harrison became a fan favorite due to her defensive tenacity and infectious personality. But her size was always going to be a major obstacle to overcome at the pro level. Her official listed height is 5-foot-6, but official listed heights can be and often are inaccurate. Unless she was a truly elite shooter (Harrison shot 30.2 percent from deep last season at WVU), guards who are that undersized have a hard time sticking.
It is still possible the Fire bring Harrison back if she clears waivers in the next 48 hours. They have one of their two developmental roster spots open (second-round pick Frieda Bühner has the other one), so if she isn't picked up by another team on waivers, they could re-sign her. Head coach Alex Sarama has spoken highly of her throughout training camp and early into the season, and her making the opening-day roster as an undrafted rookie shows how the organization feels about her. But she's always going to be the smallest player on the floor in any matchup.
Smalls, meanwhile, has bounced between the WNBA and various overseas leagues since being drafted in the third round of the 2020 draft by Indiana. She's only appeared in 13 WNBA games over those six seasons, playing one stint in Atlanta last season on a seven-day contract. But she shot 38 percent from three-point range in each of her final two college seasons at James Madison and shot 46.9 percent from deep last season for the Turkish club Galatasaray.
The Fire have one other player, 35-year-old Slovenian rookie guard Teja Oblak, also on a suspended contract due to injury; when she is activated, they will have to waive another player.
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