It was 30 years ago, when the viability of the NBA in Toronto was in question (imagine that, given where we are today?) and there was one undeniable fact.
There was, we knew, a subset of diehard basketball fans in Toronto and Canada who would carry the early days until the greater sporting populace caught on.
That was true then for the Raptors, and it is true now when it comes to the WNBA. People are there, and more will come.
It is true because some of us have seen it coming in the women’s game for about three decades.
I remember sitting in a very loud, very packed gym at McMaster University in 1996, watching the Canadian women’s basketball team storm back from way down to beat Cuba and qualify for the Atlanta Olympics.
It spawned a generation of young players — Canadian Olympian and WNBAer Shona Thorburn of Hamilton once told me she was at that game — because they got to see the likes of Bev Smith play in person.
And I remember the summer of 2015, watching Canada lay waste to all comers starting here at the Pan Am Games before ending up in a very loud, very packed gym at the Saville Centre in Edmonton, where Canada qualified for the 2016 Rio Games.
Another era of young Canadian players was spawned then: Isa Alexander of Michigan State got an autograph from Natalie Achonwa at the Pan Am Games, and the crowds in Edmonton were teeming with teenagers who got a rare chance to see their team play live.
That night almost three decades ago, that summer nine years back and all the other times in between when there was a chance to tell stories about Canadian women’s basketball players and teams offer proof that the WNBA team coming here in 2026 is starting from a position of strength.
And having been a chronicler of the women’s game here for a minute or two, it’s about time.
The one thing I am dead certain a WNBA team will do is juice interest among young girls, and the importance of that cannot be overstated.
It’s been that way with the national women’s team; I’ve seen it happen since the mid-1990s. Seeing those Canadian teams on the rare occasions when they’ve played at home has truly given girls the “if you see it, you can be it” ethos that Tammy Sutton-Brown mentioned at Thursday’s WNBA announcement.
It was true through the 2000s, and even more evident when Canada became a world power in the 2010s.
And it has to be top of mind for Teresa Resch and her front-facing WNBA team in the run-up to launch and beyond. They have been given a great responsibility, almost a national trust.
They have to pick a general manager who gets it. They have to hire a coach who understands that part of it. And they absolutely have to sign players who accept that part of the deal.
In all of my years spent around Canadian women’s players, they have accepted that task and embraced it far more often than the men.
They are role models, and want to be. They want that connection to resonate with girls, because girls don’t see it too often. Unfailingly, those Canadian women have talked to, listened to and connected with the next generation. I saw it. I know it to be true.
You can draw a straight line from Bev Smith to Kim Gaucher and Thorburn and Lizanne Murphy to Achonwa, and Bridget Carleton and Kia Nurse and Kayla Alexander to Aaliyah Edwards and Laeticia Amihere (that’s just grabbing names that come quickly to mind). They all did it. They just never had the chance on a regular basis, not remotely as often as the women of the Toronto Whatevers will.
Connect. Inspire. If they do that, there’s no end to what this franchise can accomplish in the greater picture.
I have every faith that they will, because I know Resch well. I know what she’s learned in more than a decade of working closely with Raptors president Masai Ujiri. She understands.
And most important, I know what owner Larry Tanenbaum will expect and demand, because he understands how important this franchise will be far beyond just games on the court. It wasn’t lost on many that Tanenbaum said this during Thursday’s launch: “I’ve referenced Nelson Mandela’s famous quote many times. ‘Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.’ ”
On a macro level, that’s undeniable.
To boil it down, it has been proven from that 1996 night until now: The way women’s basketball players in this country believe in the common goal of uplifting future generations has worked.
It needs to be a primary goal of the WNBA team as well.
It’s been proven to work, and it matters in a much greater picture than just sports.
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