For three seasons, from 2000 through 2002, the Fire were Portland’s WNBA team, joining the league with Indiana Fever, Miami Sol and Seattle Storm.

As most WNBA teams still were learning how to operate back then, they often leaned heavily on the NBA franchises to which they initially belonged. The Fire were under Paul Allen, the owner of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers were known for their devoted fandom, best exemplified by 814 home sellouts in a row, from 1977 until 1995. By the year 2000, they were among NBA championship contenders. (This information is crucial to understand the circumstances of Fire’s eventual failure.)

Because four teams entered the league at the same time, the expansion draft wasn’t particularly generous to the newcomers. There were six rounds, with the 12 existing teams losing two players each. In the first three rounds, five players were protected from existing teams and each team lost one player. In the second three rounds, three more players were protected by each existing team. General managers complained about the structure, insisting draft created an unfair advantage for existing teams.

Without a significant influx of talent from the expansion draft, the Fire went 10-22 in their first season, which won them the No. 4 overall pick in the 2001 WNBA Draft. They selected Jackie Stiles, the high-scoring shooting guard from Missouri State. Stiles immediately warmed to the people of Portland, recalling to Swish Appeal:

I have such fond memories of the early 2000s Portland Fire. The energy at our games was incredible, and it was amazing to feel the community rally behind us. In my opinion, we had the best fans in the league! Every honor I received, I share with the fans and the community of Portland. Their support pushed me to be better and to do more to make them proud.

The team wasn’t good during its second season either, winning just 11 games. The improvements were slow, but Stiles was seen as the brightest star on the roster, winning Rookie of the Year honors over future legends Lauren Jackson and Tamika Catchings. She also got to spend 20 minutes on the court during the 2001 All-Star Game. However, a different story comes to her mind when she remembers her time in Portland, one that shows how things have changed in the W. As she told Swish Appeal:

It was during a road trip. We tried to save our $100 daily travel per diem by eating cheaply. I wasn’t hungry right after the game, but later on, I started to feel it. I went looking for our trainer to grab some protein bars, and a couple of my teammates, who were getting treatment, mentioned they were hungry too. None of us wanted to splurge on the Ritz-Carlton room service, but we had spotted a Wendy’s nearby and decided to hit the drive-thru. We asked the concierge to call us a cab, but what we didn’t realize was that the Ritz doesn’t call cabs—they call limos! So, we ended up taking a limo to Wendy’s to order off the 99-cent menu. The driver was like, “Is this the only place you ladies want to go?” By the time we factored in the limo, room service would have been cheaper! We still laugh about it to this day.

Next year, the Fire went 16-16. The team was better, but Stiles appeared in just 21 games due to injuries, with only three starts. After that season, the NBA gave team owners three months to either take over the teams or find new owners. Paul Allen didn’t step up, and no other potential local owners emerged. Allen was fine with losing $100 million on the Blazers, but considered the $1 million annual losses generated by the Fire to be too much. To this day, the Fire remain the only franchise in WNBA history that never made the playoffs.

Photo by: Sam Forencich/WNBAE/Getty Images

The Portland franchise that will join the league in 2026 will give the city a chance to change that. Hopefully, it can learn from the mistakes of the predecessors. And the veterans of Portland’s first WNBA stint are here to offer their wisdom, knowledge and expertise. Stiles said to Swish Appeal:

I’m thrilled about to the news of Portland getting a WNBA expansion team. It’s fantastic to see women’s basketball thriving, and I’m excited to watch the sport continue to grow here with this new team.

What the Fire had in Portland wasn’t necessarily a legacy, but still it would be awesome if the city and the new franchise found a way to honor these trail blazers of professional women’s basketball in Oregon.

2025 doesn’t feature a major international women’s basketball competition, with the next FIBA Women’s World Cup scheduled for 2026.

However, that doesn’t mean international basketball will not be part of the women’s basketball stories of the year ahead, with multiple overseas leagues providing high-level action, EuroBasket Women taking place in June and preparations for the World Cup and 2028 Olympics likely to begin. Here are the FIBA wishes for 2025 from Swish Appeal’s staff writers:

An exciting conclusion to the EuroLeague Women season

FIBA instituted a new competition format for EuroLeague Women for the 2024-25 season in an effort to “raise the stakes” of its regular-season games, and so far it’s proven to be a successful change. In the new two-round group play system, the weaker EuroLeague Women clubs are weeded out early in the competition, while the very best clubs tend to avoid each other until later in the season, keeping things exciting at a time of year when playoff seeds were previously more or less already decided.

Right now, EuroLeague Women is currently in its second round of group play, and we’ve already had several marquee matchups live up to their billing. Next will be the play-ins, followed by the “final six” (essentially the playoffs), and for the first time in several years, there isn’t a blindingly obvious title favorite. It’s very possible that Fenerbahçe wins a third consecutive championship, but ÇBK Mersin and Valencia Basket Club are also in the mix, and the best part is that we’ll have several opportunities to watch those teams play each other as the season progresses. There’s only so much FIBA can do about resource and budget discrepancies between competing clubs, but the new EuroLeague Women competition system has done a lot to make the field more interesting, and things are looking set for an exciting play-in and final six early in 2025. — Eric Nemchock

Han Xu leaves the WCBA

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“Journeywoman” isn’t the right label for Han Xu, but I’m not sure what is. The former New York Liberty reserve big is known well in WNBA circles for the spectacle of her 6-foot-10 frame, but only ever appeared in 58 games across three distanced seasons. Since her last WNBA appearance in 2023, she’s alternated between the WCBA’s Sichuan Yuanda Meile and the Chinese national team.

Xu has seemed complacently comfortable in the WCBA, but she’s not challenging herself. If she has the desire to return to the biggest stage (which maybe she doesn’t) she needs to graduate to better competition. There’s no doubt that some EuroLeague Women teams would welcome Xu’s presence in the middle, even if just on a rotational basis. She would certainly improve at a much quicker rate, and WNBA staffs would have more convincing evidence of her place in the league. Xu just recently turned 25, and thus her potential cannot be rightfully discredited. I would love to see Xu challenge herself in a different international league, and polish her game on the road back to the W. — Beckett Harrison

Gabby Williams leads Les Bleues to EuroBasket gold

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From a US-centric perspective, there seems to be a “right” career path for a top-tier women’s basketball talent: play at an elite US college program, go to the WNBA and (now), during the WNBA offseason, play in Unrivaled.

Gabby Williams, however, helpfully disabuses us of such a presumption. Yes, she attended UConn and was a lottery pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft. Yet, Williams has not been wedded to the WNBA or stateside opportunities, instead carving out a career path that best suits her preferences, whether that involve prioritizing opportunities with EuroLeague Women clubs or with the French women’s national basketball team.

While Williams doesn’t needed a golden trophy to validate her decisions, it would be cool to see her take France to the top. After a historic upset of Team USA in the gold medal game at the Paris Olympics came up a step short, Williams has the opportunity to take Les Bleues to the pinnacle of European women’s hoops in 2025 by leading France to its first EuroBasket Women gold since 2009. — Cat Ariail

Canada returns to its full potential

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Canada’s women’s basketball program is in flux at the moment. While the women’s 3×3 program is fresh off a FIBA AmeriCup gold medal win and thriving, the senior women’s 5×5 team is transitioning.

The sting of their ninth place finish at the Tokyo Olympics was somewhat alleviated by a fourth place finish at the 2022 World Cup in Australia. Hopes were high going into the next Olympic cycle, but a skin-of-their-teeth qualification to the Paris Olympics led to an 0-3 group phase record for the Canadians.

Yet, these players and this program is better than that record. Even as they transition into a new (yet to be determined) coaching staff, and welcome in a new generation of players, this team still has talent. Natalie Achonwa announced her retirement prior to the Olympics, but the program still has vets in Bridget Carleton and Kia Nurse, as well as Sami Hill and Kayla Alexander. Syla Swords and Aaliyah Edwards will surely have a bigger place come the next World Cup and Olympics, with other players like Laeticia Amihere, Toby Fournier, Avery Howell, Cassandre Prosper and Yvonne Ejim emerging as potential players as well.

This team can definitely make a return to the top rankings in the world, and it will be fun to see how they perform in the coming years. — Chelsea Leite

Let’s get serious about winning gold in 3×3

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Back at the 2020 Olympics, Team USA won 3×3 gold with a stacked roster featuring Allisha Gray, Stefanie Dolson, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. Fast-forward to the 2024 Olympics, Team USA fails to bring home the gold and walks away with the bronze medal in Paris.

To ensure America is back on top for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the journey and work must start now. Luckily, it has. Team USA participated in the AmeriCup this December and won the silver medal. That’s not the main goal, but a step in the right direction. They are also establishing WNBA players on the roster early, with Azurá Stevens, Brittney Sykes, Maddy Siegrist and Abbey Hsu participating in this competition. Future Olympians will also be available for 2028, such as UConn’s Sarah Strong, who won gold at the 2024 FIBA U18 AmeriCup, and Harvard’s Harmoni Turner, who was a part of the 2024 U23 team.

Team USA should be in a prime position to win it all in LA, but let’s make sure the Redeem Team gets it done in 2028 by preparing for the moment even more in 2025. — Edwin Garcia

USA keeps their pedal to the (gold) medal

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Team USA looked good in 2024, so good that they brought home their eighth-consecutive gold medal. Spearheaded by the one-two punch of A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, the American women were a force to be reckoned with on the Olympic hardwood. It was so much fun to witness how amazing that team looked all through the 2024 Olympics, but it also raised a question: Who is next?

Who can keep protect the gold for the red, white and blue? What adjustments can be made? Which future faces of the W can keep this well-oiled machine running?

With the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Rickea Jackson already making their mark in the league and incoming talent like JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers soon to kick down the league’s door, Team USA’s revolving door of talent should keep spinning, with younger, newer faces joining vets who are progressing into their careers. The bridge period isn’t going to be the easiest, but with the talent pool of incoming and established WNBA superstars, it should be fun and promising journey. — Myke Horrell

After a triumphant 2024, expectations are raised for the WNBA in 2025. Swish Appeal’s staff writers are adding to the W’s great expectations, sharing our WNBA wishes for 2025:

Dominique Malonga becomes a Valkyrie

Not many players sell tickets in women’s basketball like a center who can dunk off a spin move. Not many centers in women’s basketball can dunk off a spin move. Not many 19 year olds average 15 points per game while playing professional basketball in France, nor do many have an Olympic medal. Not many 6-foot-6 post players shoot 52.9 percent from 3.

Dominique Malonga is an anomaly in every sense of the word. Her explosiveness and power is torturing WNBA scouts and their ability to properly analyze international prospects in an environment that predominantly favors stateside NCAA success. Malonga would only be a freshman if she were playing in college, but there’s a legitimate, non-zero chance that she would be the best player in the country. I would go as far as to claim that if there was more film of her playing against American competition her age, Paige Bueckers would have some competition at the top of next years draft.

I can’t think of a better fit for Malonga than the newest WNBA franchise: the Golden State Valkyries. They need a star to market. The most noticeable gap in their post-expansion draft roster is at center. Malonga and the Bay feel like a match made in heaven.— Beckett Harrison

Give me all the Toronto Tempo content!

Okay, so the Toronto Tempo don’t actually join the WNBA until 2026, but this is going to be a fun year for the WNBA’s 14th franchise. In 2025, we will get merchandise for the Tempo. We’ll get announcements about the general manager and coaching staff. We likely will see what the uniforms and facilities will look like. The year also will feature a second-straight expansion draft.

It will be a fun year of preparation in anticipation for Canada’s first WNBA team, and I just want all the content! Give me the merch, give me players to root for, give me a coach and a vision! It will also be fun to see the Golden State Valkyries enter the league and navigate their inaugural season goes; it could be a preview into what to expect a year later in Toronto. — Chelsea Leite

The good vibes return to the Chicago Sky

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Can the Chicago Sky catch a break? Ever since getting eliminated in the 2022 WNBA Playoffs, the Sky have taken hit after hit, losing most of their best players in free agency and the rest to trades that the players themselves requested. Chicago has also been on a coaching carousel, including James Wade leaving midseason to join the NBA’s Toronto Raptors in 2023 and WNBA legend Teresa Weatherspoon getting fired after just one year at the helm in 2024.

Though the Sky have been in the spotlight often since drafting Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese, it hasn’t always been for the right reasons. Most notably, the franchise continues to lag behind most others in the WNBA in establishing a dedicated practice facility (the Sky just broke ground at the facility’s anticipated location in October, and it isn’t expected to be finished until 2026), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reasons why Chicago is rarely the destination of choice for top-tier free agents. Simply put, the gap between the Sky as an organization and most others in the WNBA continues to widen, and it’s becoming more and more noticeable as the league itself grows.

None of this is news to longtime Sky fans, though. The diehards continue to show up despite the dysfunction; in fact, Chicago enjoyed its best attendance ever in 2024 (Across the Timeline), and as long as it retains such recognizable names on its roster, that number should hold steady. But will all those fans be rewarded for their loyalty? Here’s hoping the good vibes return to Chicago in 2025. — Eric Nemchock

Can the Sparks make the postseason?

The Los Angeles Sparks are currently in their worst era of basketball. That’s not hyperbole; all the data backs up that claim. They have missed the postseason for four-straight years, their longest drought in franchise history, and are coming off the worst winning percentage ever, with LA winning just 20 percent of their games in 2024. However, the night is darkest just before dawn, and rays of optimism are rising in Los Angeles.

Dearica Hamby had a career year with the Sparks and will be back in 2025. Rickea Jackson made the All-Rookie team and Cameron Brink should make a triumphant return from her ACL injury, giving the team an elite defender to pair with Hamby and Jackson. The Sparks also have the No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, which probably won’t bring superstar Paige Bueckers to LA but should result in a quality player who can impact winning immediately. Add in a new head coach with Lynne Roberts getting the job after Curt Miller and the franchise parted ways, and suddenly, a postseason appearance is not a wild expectation.

Still, words are one thing, and execution is another. This franchise is too important and in too big of a market to be as bad as they’ve been. It’s inexcusable in Los Angeles, and fans in Southern California will ignore this team if they don’t start improving. I hope they finally show tangible improvement with more wins in 2025 than in the past four years. — Edwin Garcia

The Aces play their cards right

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The Las Vegas Aces began the 2024 season motivated to win a third-straight championship and cement their legacy even further into the WNBA record books. But sometimes, a step backward is inevitable. For the Aces, that was very much the case.

The team came into last season not quite looking like the Aces most of us were accustomed to. Key players like Chelsea Gray were injured. There was controversy about the $100,000 sponsorship bonuses each player received from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. They couldn’t string together wins. And for once, they looked like they felt the heat all around them. The champions who couldn’t be defeated looked…defeated, even with A’ja Wilson stringing together one of the most legendary seasons in all of sports history. It just wasn’t enough to catapult Vegas back to their throne.

With the longest off-season break they’ve had in years, the pressure on the team has died down, their depth is replenishing and their health seems to be top-tier. The Aces have all the keys to reclaim what is theirs. So, will they do it in 2025? — Myke Horrell

Every playoff team finishes .500 or better

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WNBA expansion has, finally, arrived. We’ve been waiting, and we’re ready! But, is the WNBA ready?

While the league’s limited number of roster spots has resulted in believed-to-be-promising players getting cut on a yearly basis, an excess of league-ready players hasn’t translated into an excess of high-quality teams in the league. Last season, the Atlanta Dream stumbled in the playoffs with a record 10 games below .500. In 2023, only half of the eight playoff teams finished above .500.

The dawn of the WNBA’s superteam era has resulted in increased disparity between true title contenders and mediocre also-rans, with too many of the latter. Possibly, the aggression that more than half of the league’s teams have shown since the end of the 2024 season—with an absurd seven coaching changes!—will produce a more competitive league landscape in 2025. The new CBA, to be negotiated by Oct. 31, 2025, could also reset the league’s competitive balance. But if not, with the Golden State Valkyries entering the league this season and the Toronto Tempo and to-be-named Portland franchise joining in 2026, the gap between the haves and have-nots could get uglier.

Seeing every playoff team finish with a .500 or better record in 2025 would assuage these concerns, confirming that the league is ready not just to be bigger, but also better. — Cat Ariail