Toronto Gets an ‘A-Plus’ in the First WNBA Preseason Game in Canada: ‘We Need WNBA in the 6ix’

“Major shout out to Canada and all the supporters that came out, the little girls were able to see it so they can really be it. It’s nothing like really having that experience, that real WNBA experience, seeing and having direct access to these players.”

Copper added that she did not get to witness WNBA games growing up in Philadelphia, but that it’s important for young girls to “see players that are from where they’re from make it in the WNBA. So I think that was special too, because not only are they seeing us Americans, they’re seeing Canadians also that are doing it. So, they’re definitely double inspired.”

After all, the desire to bring a WNBA franchise to Toronto and to Canada is not just so that people can spend their Saturday afternoons happily watching basketball in downtown Toronto during the summer—it’s also so that young women can see themselves represented in the professional ranks, providing role models for them to aspire towards. Basketball is already growing in Canada in the youth ranks and among our women’s national teams, with the girls and senior team each ranking fifth in the world. Plus, in addition to Carleton, Achonwa, and Kia Nurse, Scarborough-native Laeticia Amihere was selected No. 8 overall by the Atlanta Dream in the 2023 Draft, giving the WNBA four Canadian players.

“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Carleton said about the opportunity to play in front of the next generation of Canadian girls. “I think back to when I was a kid growing up and I was looking up to a lot of the players that were on our senior national team: Kim Gaucher, Miranda Ayim… So I’m really, really excited to be those people, be that person for the next generation of kids that hopefully comes to the game tomorrow and can see me, especially Canadians, playing at this level at the highest level.”

Carelton admitted that “it would have been huge” to see a WNBA game in Canada herself growing up, saying that “Growing up, I didn’t even dream of playing in the WNBA. I knew of it, I knew that there was a league. I knew it was the best league. but I’d never thought it was gonna be possible for me. It just wasn’t accessible. … I really didn’t have access to it, and I didn’t really know what it was like.”

“So if I did, if I did know, if I were to go to a game in Canada, especially just being able to see people that look like me that I could potentially fill their shoes one day, I would have had those dreams for myself. And it really wasn’t until like my senior year of college where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can play in the WNBA.’”

Instead, like many of the young girls in attendance on Saturday, Carleton became a fan of basketball and saw it as a potential future career through the Canadian women’s senior team (which she is now a key member of), with Canada Basketball being largely responsible for both her development and aspirations growing up.

“My family especially loves cheering for Canada at the Olympics. Like when the Olympics are on, that’s the only thing on TV,” Carleton said. “And I remember watching our senior women’s team qualify for 2012, they beat Japan and it was like their last chance to qualify for the London Olympics. And I remember watching that game when I was 15 years old and I was like: ‘Okay, that’s what I want to do in my career.’”

Carleton added: “I think the rise of the women’s team and now that we’re getting more attention and we’re on TV a little bit more, social media is helping, I think that’s building the fandom around it.”

The hope with the WNBA Canada game was to showcase the women’s basketball talent and fanbase that has slowly but surely been growing in Canada. And the hope going forward is that those major events in women’s basketball no longer occur once every four years during an Olympic cycle, but every single week during a WNBA season, with a professional women’s team in Toronto as soon as 2025.

Canadians made those hopes clear on Saturday afternoon, when they cheered so loud it was as if they were afraid the moment would pass. And the WNBA not only took notice of Canada’s desire to have a WNBA team, but also of what the league itself could gain from being in Canada and surrounding itself with such a passionate fanbase.

“I’ll give you an A-plus,” Wade said about Toronto’s test run for having a WNBA team. “Listen, you guys have something here in Toronto that’s really special. You sensed it when you guys made the NBA Finals run in 2019, how you were partying outside, there was like as many people outside [in Jurassic Park] as there were inside.”

“And so us being here yesterday, there were like 100,000 people in a square radius or whatever and it’s like: damn everybody has a Maple Leafs shirt or this or that and it’s just nice to see how energetic and vibrant the city is. 

“And so you’re like: ‘damn, the WNBA deserves that too.’”