{"id":70717,"date":"2025-08-15T17:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70717\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:22:07","slug":"wnba-canada-game-2025-marks-historic-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70717\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Canada Game 2025 marks historic milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark\u201d is out now!<\/p>\n

Howard Megdal\u2019s newest book is here! \u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar\u201d captures both the historic nature of Clark\u2019s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an important game, too. Atlanta has skyrocketed to second place league-wide, competing with New York for that coveted No. 2 seed. The difference between having to play the top team (which is currently Minnesota, with a six-game lead) in the finals or semifinals hangs in the balance. Atlanta wants all the wins it can get.<\/p>\n

Seattle, on the other hand, is trying to climb out of the hole it\u2019s ended up in. After being a top 4-5 team all season long, a losing skid saw the Storm slide down the ranks. They now barely hang on to a playoff spot at eighth place, and are desperate to try and regain their status if they can.<\/p>\n

The backdrop of this big game with big implications: Vancouver. A thriving sports city \u2014 once home to the NBA\u2019s Grizzlies, now home to teams like the CEBL\u2019s Vancouver Bandits, NHL Vancouver Canucks, NSL Vancouver Rise FC, PWHL Vancouver and more. Fans of the Storm may very well travel the three hours by car to come support their Storm and take in the scenery here in British Columbia, while the city\u2019s own basketball fans will welcome any hoops they can get.<\/p>\n

These games are also a preview for what\u2019s to come in the WNBA. With the Toronto Tempo entering the WNBA next season, Canada will have its own team to cheer for. The Tempo have leaned heavily into the idea of being \u201cCanada\u2019s Team\u201d and plan to hold their own special event games all across Canada as well. Their NBA counterparts, the Toronto Raptors, travel the country every year for their training camp and preseason, doing an open practice for the public and a preseason game in a different city each season. Their preseason game in early October will also be held in Vancouver this year.<\/p>\n

Whether the Tempo decide to follow suit with a similar preseason tradition, or travel around the country in different ways, the messaging is still the same: they are Canada\u2019s team. In an interview with The Next last week, Tempo general manager Monica Wright<\/a> Rogers emphasized the importance of everyone on the team, including their yet-to-be-hired head coach, knowing the importance of the Canadian community in their team culture. These events won\u2019t end just because Canada gets their team next season. That\u2019s not the end of the efforts to grow the game here, but the beginning of a new chapter.<\/p>\n

Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/p>\n

Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n

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The WNBA has enhanced this season\u2019s Canada game with efforts to engage the community. Swin Cash<\/a>, WNBA Hall of Famer and four-time WNBA All-Star, helped introduce new WNBA 3-point line activations on public courts in Vancouver on Thursday morning. Cash was also present for a panel event about women\u2019s wellness on and off the court on Thursday evening, talking about the importance of prioritizing yourself whether you\u2019re an athlete or not. The Toronto Tempo will be present for activations before and during the game, introducing fans in Vancouver to the team that\u2019s as much theirs as it would be if they were based in the city.<\/p>\n

This game tonight is more than just a regular season game in a cool location \u2014 it\u2019s a celebration of how much the game has grown in Canada and globally. It\u2019s a way for fans to feel the connection with this sport, even if there is no team in the market here. It\u2019s a way to introduce American fans to the culture of sport, and women\u2019s sport especially, in Canada. More than anything, it\u2019s an important reminder that even in the grind of a competitive season, women\u2019s basketball is bigger than the game being played on the court. It\u2019s about using this game as a conductor to other things like empowerment, community activism, health and wellness, and showing young kids that if you can see it, you can be it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark\u201d is out now! Howard Megdal\u2019s newest book is here! \u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[38558,64,63,726,2065,46094,85,5941,55657],"class_list":{"0":"post-70717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-atlanta-dream","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-seattle-storm","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wnba","16":"tag-wnba-canada-gane"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}