Portland Fire Finally Have Basketball Players Ahead of Inaugural WNBA Season

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📍PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Fire have existed as a basketball team for 19 months. Until Friday, they had no basketball players.

As a friend who bought season tickets put it to me recently, the entire operation has felt more like a Supreme merch pop-up than a team you're going to be able to watch play games. A months-long CBA battle that delays the WNBA offseason will do that.

With Friday's expansion draft, the Fire and the other new team, the Toronto Tempo, finally cleared that hurdle. Now they have actual players to sell jerseys and put on billboards.

Some good ones, too.

“Honestly, today went better than anyone expected,” general manager Vanja Černivec said to open her post-draft press conference in a meeting room at the Hyatt Regency hotel in northeast Portland.

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