PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Portland Fire started the season with a nickname that recalled the past but with a modern coach and general manager who shared a somewhat unconventional approach.
The season ended with an unlikely victory, and happy tears.
“Obviously we've had some ups and downs, but we're resilient,” Bridget Carleton said on the court after the Fire rallied from a 17-0 deficit to beat the Golden State Valkyries 90-82 in overtime in their final
game of the season. “But I'm just really excited and proud — I'm going to cry — and happy to be here and I can't wait until next year.”
The Fire joined the WNBA this season along with the fellow expansion Toronto Tempo. Portland previously had a WNBA team, also called the Fire, that played from 2000 to 2002.
Vanja Černivec, who was president of basketball operations for the Golden State Valkyries in their first season in 2025, was named general manager. She hired English coach Alex Sarama, a proponent of a training method called Constraints-Led Approach, which emphasizes creative problem solving over repetitive drills.
In the end, Portland went 17-27, the second-best record for an expansion team after 2000.
“We want to be the team that learns the fastest in the league. That’s kind of this whole kind of philosophy we want to have here," Sarama said. “We want to try and be like the Silicon Valley of pro sports, and how you do that is trying to learn the most and innovate the fastest.”
The Fire's inaugural season got off to a rocky start. The timeline for the ramp-up was compacted by the contentious labor negotiations between the league and its players.
Once a new collective bargaining agreement was reached in March, Portland selected Carleton with its first pick in the expansion draft. The Fire surprised many by taking Iyana Martin Carrion of Spain with the No. 7 pick in the traditional WNBA draft, then announcing she would not join the team for the 2026 season.
Portland embraced the team's history with the slogan “Fire Reignited” on T-shirts for the home opener, a sellout with more 19,000 fans. The Moda Center was dubbed the Fire Pit.
The Fire remained a hit with Portlanders throughout the season, drawing an average of more than 14,460 fans per game, fourth in the league.
They also opened a new training facility with the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League. Both teams are owned by Lisa Bhathal Megage and her brother, Alex Bhathal, under the banner Raj Sports. The facility is the first purpose-built women's performance center shared by two women's professional teams.
There also were struggles. The Fire lost Sarah Ashlee Barker, a fan favorite dubbed SAB, to an ACL injury in late July. She was averaging 10.7 points and 4.5 rebounds when she got hurt. At the same time, the team was in the midst of a five-game losing streak.
After the season finale, the Fire looked toward building next season, especially with the expected arrival of Martin Carrion, who was a breakout star at the recent FIBA World Cup, averaging 17.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals for third-place Spain.
“Obviously there was a Fire back in 2000, a Fire team, but to have the team come back to the city, and we were the first team to bring it back, the 14 of us, the coaching staff, setting the standard for what we want this Fire to be in this age and this generation,” said Carleton, who averaged 14.6 points and 4.5 rebounds this season.
“Just really proud of — when you look back 10 years from now, when the Fire are 10 years in this era of it, to remember who started it, who was here and who set the foundation for the success we're going to have in the future," she said. “I think it's just really special to be part of that.”
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