TORONTO — It may have been an “ugly game,” but it was a historic one — both on and off the court.
The Toronto Tempo dropped their inaugural season opener 68-65 to the Washington Mystics on Friday in front of a thunderous, sold-out Coca-Cola Coliseum, but the atmosphere of the WNBA’s debut of a Canadian team was exactly what the team had hoped to see.
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The energy of the 8,210 fans, who were adorned in either Tempo Bordeaux and blue, or alternate white “Opening Night” T-shirts that had been placed on their seats ahead of tip-off, was palpable all night. They roared loud boos for a flagrant foul called on Brittney Sykes toward the end of the third quarter. They danced on the Jumbotron at breaks throughout the night. And they cheered loudly when Toronto fleetingly grabbed hold of the lead.
Among those fans was season-ticket holder Taylor Naiman, who held a sign that read “Here for History” with three Canadian flags. “This is a really special moment for us in Toronto. It means a lot.”
Another was Sasha Rennick, who attended with her daughters, Alex and Ana, holding a sign that said, “This girl has been waiting a lifetime for this,” with an arrow pointing to a photo of her as a child.
“We’re a big basketball family. I was at the first Raptors game with my dad, and now this is a full-circle moment being at the first Tempo WNBA Canada game,” said Rennick, who then pointed to her daughter, Alex, who held a giant, glittery orange sign shaped like a basketball that read, “She shoots, she scores.”
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“For these little girls growing up, to see these amazing athletes on the court, playing hard, I think we’re going to have amazing development of new players here in Canada,” Rennick said.
It was a crowd that impressed head coach Sandy Brondello, who joined the Tempo after three seasons on the New York Liberty bench.
“Sad that we didn’t win the game, didn’t close it out, but the fans were fantastic,” Brondello said. “It was a very ugly game. Hopefully, they get way prettier than that as we move forward. Both teams have a lot of work to do, but we grounded out.”
The Tempo are part of a growing WNBA landscape that now includes 15 franchises. They joined the league this season along with the Portland Fire, who debut Saturday night at home against the Chicago Sky. Last season, the Golden State Valkyries became the first expansion team since 2008. By 2030, the WNBA will have three more teams, adding teams in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit.
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Everything the Tempo did on Friday night was part of history. Guard Marina Mabrey scored a game-high 27 points, while Sykes scored the first three points in team history and finished with 14 overall.
The nail-biter was sealed with two pairs of free throws by Washington’s Shakira Austin, clinching the win with 10 seconds to go. Sonia Citron led the Mystics with 26 points.
“We were poor in offense. I think we didn’t share the ball. We didn’t play as a team as much as we would have liked. But that’s an easy fix,” Brondello said after the game. “We just got to get back to being selfless, basketball team, and making our defense create our offense. Because while we got stops, we only had 11 points in transition. You want to try and get that up to close to 20. But it was great to get the first game behind us.”
Mabrey recognized that the Tempo still gave the crowd something to cheer for.
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“I don’t get any of those shots for the fans to go crazy if my teammates don’t scream and find me, so I appreciate that, but they’re carrying us energy-wise,” Mabrey said. “Sometimes it’s a new team, we’re trying to play, we try to figure it out and have them have our back, cheering for us every time we figure it out. It kind of helps us feel like we’re getting something going.”
Tempo owners Larry Tanenbaum and Masai Ujiri were among those in attendance, as well as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Toronto mayor Olivia Chow and Canadian sports royalty that included Christine Sinclair and Andre DeGrasse.
Kia Nurse, the Tempo’s lone native Canadian, addressed the crowd before the game.
“We want this to be a permanent thing, we have to show why Canada deserves a WNBA team,” she said, “and I’ll be damned, y’all did it.”
The Tempo next face the Seattle Storm at home on Wednesday.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Toronto Tempo, WNBA
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