Since the arrival of Caitlin Clark in the 2024 WNBA draft, the league has undergone extraordinary and exponential growth. The 2025 season saw the arrival of a new expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, and the 2026 season is set to bring two more, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo.
The league is growing at such a rapid rate, that it’s now even able to take coaches off of NBA staff, according to ESPN.
“The Portland Fire have hired Alex Sarama, an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the WNBA expansion franchise’s inaugural head coach, the team and Sarama told (Ramona Shelburne),” ESPNW reported.
Fans reacted to the news on social media.
“Seems like an intriguing hire for portland, don’t know much about sarama but i like plucking from the atkinson tree player dev background from the american and euro lvls is ideal for an expansion team if it works out,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“The W is definitely cleaning house. A lot of old coaches will be gone. Rightfully so,” someone else added.
“He’s a coaching demon, anyone who is against this doesn’t know basketball and shouldn’t talk basketball. The WNBA is changing, those who don’t catch up will be left behind,” another fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Fire do in their inaugural season.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.