Portland Fire Name Vanja Černivec Franchise's First General Manager

The Portland Fire have named Golden State Valkyries vice president of basketball operations Vanja Černivec as the franchise's first general manager ahead of their inaugural WNBA season next summer, the team announced Monday morning.

Černivec's first day on the job will be Sept. 15, according to the announcement. The team will hold an introductory press conference on Tuesday morning.

“Vanja is a visionary, and we are confident she will help define what this franchise can be,” Fire co-owner and governor Lisa Bhathal Merage said in a statement. “As a foundational leader in this new chapter for the Fire, she brings the experience, integrity, and passion for advancing the women’s game that this moment demands.”

Černivec, a native of Slovenia, joined the expansion Valkyries last July as the top assistant to general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and helped conduct their expansion draft and first free-agency period. In their inaugural season, the Valkyries have been one of the most immediately successful expansion teams ever, in any sport. With eight games left in the WNBA season, they currently sit in eighth place in the standings with an 18-18 record. They're on pace to make the playoffs in their first year of existence despite losing All-Star forward Kayla Thornton for the season to a knee injury in July.

The Valkyries' nascent front office has placed a heavy emphasis on the international game in building their first roster. Seven of the 11 players they selected from other teams in December's expansion draft are from countries other than the United States, and their current roster includes three players from France (Iliana Rupert, Janelle Salaün and Carla Leite) as well as from Italy (Cecilia Zandalasini), Great Britain (Temi Fagbenle) and Canada (Laeticia Amihere).

That international emphasis is due at least in part to the influence of Černivec, who had never worked in the WNBA before joining the Valkyries but had extensive international scouting experience in both the men's and women's games. She previously spent two seasons as the general manager of the London Lions, who won the Women's British Basketball League championship both years she was in charge. She has also served as an international scout for the Chicago Bulls and in basketball operations with the NBA league office, where she focused on building out the NBA Academy Women's Program.

The Fire are one of two expansion teams joining the WNBA next season, along with the Toronto Tempo. It is not yet known when their expansion draft will take place, or how it will be structured with two teams coming in at the same time (as opposed to last year, when Golden State came in by themselves). A lot of that will also likely depend on the still-ongoing negotiations between the league and the WNBPA on a new collective-bargaining agreement. The deadline for the sides to reach a new deal without a work stoppage is Oct. 31; if a new agreement is in place by then, it's likely the Portland-Toronto expansion draft will also take place in December, like the Valkyries' draft did last year.

The completion of their search for a general manager—which sources say has been defined by several qualified candidates withdrawing from the search in recent months—is an important step in the Fire's franchise rollout after what has been an uneven first year.

There have been major positives: the team broke ground on a new Hillsboro practice facility in April, which will be shared with the Thorns, and announced on Friday that they've eclipsed 13,000 season-ticket deposits ahead of their inaugural season at Moda Center next summer.

But there have also been setbacks. It took the team seven months after last September's expansion team announcement to hire a president, former NBPA executive Inky Son. Son was let go at the end of June less than three months after her hiring was announced, under still-unclear circumstances. Since then, retired Nike executive Clare Hamill has been serving as interim president. Amid all this upheaval, they've been slow to hire other support staff and build out the organization, especially compared to Toronto and the next expansion team, Cleveland, which announced a president last week, three years ahead of their planned launch in 2028.

Still, the imminent addition of Černivec, who has deep contacts in the international game and recent experience conducting an expansion draft, appears to be an encouraging sign for the direction the Fire is headed in.