{"id":333944,"date":"2025-12-09T05:49:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333944\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T05:49:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:49:00","slug":"wnba-3-point-line-painted-on-vancouver-courts-gives-young-players-something-to-shoot-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333944\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA 3-point line painted on Vancouver courts gives young players something to shoot for"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Vancouver hosting the first WNBA regular-season game played outside the United States, a women’s basketball great was at an outdoor court in Stanley Park on Thursday to support an initiative that she hopes will strengthen the sport’s\u00a0grassroots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time\u00a0WNBA champion Swin Cash was among those on hand at the unveiling of\u00a0a\u00a0WNBA\u00a0three-point line painted on the Ceperley Court at Stanley Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cash\u00a0told a group of young female basketball players who attended the event that the orange line shows that they “have a place in every playground, every park, and everywhere we want to be.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer WNBA star Swin Cash said she is glad to see the continued growth of the women’s game.\u00a0 (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Many outdoor courts, including those\u00a0in Vancouver, feature a three-point line used in high school\u00a0basketball, which has an arc of\u00a019 feet\u00a09 inches from the middle of the basket. The NBA three-point line<\/a>, meanwhile, has an arc of 23 feet\u00a09 inches.<\/p>\n

The WNBA line<\/a> is somewhere in between, at\u00a022 feet\u00a01.75 inches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An outdoor court with a\u00a0WNBA three-point line, which is similar\u00a0to ones used by FIBA and the NCAA, is a way to bring the women’s professional game closer to communities, according to a statement from the league.<\/p>\n

In a video produced by the WNBA\u00a0about the initiative, former player Epiphanny Prince explains that growing up she used to play\u00a0on outdoor courts that featured either a high school three-point line or an\u00a0NBA three-point line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A bright orange WNBA three-point line has also been painted on courts at Vancouver’s Hastings Community Park, Gaston Park, Kingcrest Park, and Queen Elizabeth Park.<\/p>\n

Women rising<\/p>\n

The unveiling took place a day before the Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream square off at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The game comes at a time when Canada’s women’s professional sports landscape appears to be changing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The WNBA expansion Toronto Tempo is set to begin play in the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After just two years, the Professional Women’s Hockey League\u00a0has expanded to eight teams and stretched its footprint west with new franchises in Vancouver and Seattle.\u00a0The six-team Northern Soccer League\u00a0played its first matches in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cash said she is glad to see the continued growth of women’s basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Basketball is a global sport,” she said. “The WNBA\u00a0 has continued to grow. We see the numbers are there, the [viewership is] there.”<\/p>\n

She said she was also glad\u00a0to see girls\u00a0using the court at Stanley Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FormerChen Kagande, centre, says the court presents women’s sports in a ‘positive light.’ (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“It’s not only about the professional level,” she said. “I think you can see that you can get to the highest level and have a career at the professional level. But …\u00a0I tell young girls getting involved in sports is important for themselves and for their leadership.”<\/p>\n

Chen Kagande,\u00a0a combo guard for the\u00a0Britannia Bruins, a high school team, said she was happy to share\u00a0the court with a WNBA legend like Cash as well as\u00a0young peers\u00a0who share her passion for the game.<\/p>\n

“I love any space where women’s sports are being represented in such a positive light, a space where I can see people that look like me, females being put in a position to thrive and succeed,”\u00a0Kagande said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-333944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}