{"id":459929,"date":"2026-02-07T15:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459929\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T15:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:17:09","slug":"thrilled-but-not-surprised-former-portland-seattle-coach-excited-for-the-fires-return-to-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459929\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thrilled, but not surprised\u2019: Former Portland, Seattle coach excited for the Fire\u2019s return to the WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lin Dunn doesn\u2019t do much traveling for WNBA<\/a> games anymore.<\/p>\n

But when Indiana comes to the Moda Center<\/a> to play the revived Portland Fire<\/a> on May 30, the 78-year-old consultant for the Indiana Fever may have to make an exception. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat may be one of the games that I do attend because I would love to come back to Portland,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cI would love to see the environment. I would love to, you know, be a part of doing anything I can to help that team get off the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn was an integral part of Portland women\u2019s basketball in the late \u201890s and early 2000s. She coached the Portland Power<\/a> in the American Basketball League for a couple of years. After the ABL folded in 1998, she later helped lead the Seattle Storm and turned that team into a WNBA powerhouse. <\/p>\n

While the Fire have been shelved since 2002, Dunn said it was just a matter of time for professional women\u2019s basketball to return. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was thrilled, but not surprised,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt like Portland was a natural place to have a WNBA team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Portland has also welcomed a new professional softball team in 2026, Dunn agreed that the city where she once coached has always been very supportive of women\u2019s sports. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fact that there\u2019s softball<\/a>, soccer<\/a>, women\u2019s professional basketball, you know, they\u2019re all embraced there in the Portland area,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn came to Portland in the middle of the 1996 season, when the Power were off to a tough 5-17 start. Despite that she was coming in from mostly coaching in the south (previously coaching at Purdue, Miami and Ole Miss) Dunn said she was welcomed by the Power fans with open arms. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the city. I love the fans,\u201d Dunn said of her time coaching in Portland. <\/p>\n

Over the next two years, Dunn helped the Power right the ship from going 14-26 in 1996 to 27-17 the following year. <\/p>\n

When the ABL folded in 1998, the Power were holding a 9-4 record and looking like they could contend. <\/p>\n

\u201cLinda Weston<\/a> did a hell of a job as the general manager. We had some great players, and we were on our way to go from worst to first,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it was unfortunate that that season folded because I feel sure we would have won a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LinPortland Power coach Lin Dunn coaches a 1998 ABL game.THE OREGONIAN<\/p>\n

While the Fire have not yet been able to assemble their team due to ongoing collective bargaining negotiations between the WNBA and the player\u2019s association, Dunn said she was excited to see that the team brought in Sylvia Fowles<\/a> as an assistant coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of the all time greats in our game,\u201d Dunn said of the hall of famer. \u201cNot only is she an awesome player, an Olympian, but she\u2019s a wonderful person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return of the Fire in 2026 also means that the city will finally reignite the rivalry with Seattle. And while the Timbers<\/a> and Thorns have kept the rivalry alive on the soccer pitch, the cities haven\u2019t met on the basketball court since the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. <\/p>\n

Dunn has been on both sides in those rivalry games and said that Portland and Seattle fans are in for a treat when the rivalry is renewed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Dunn said of the rivalry games. \u201cYou know, it was just a three-hour drive down the road. And the fans, they were passionate, both fans. The Seattle fans will always be one of my favorite groups, as well as the Portland fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lin Dunn doesn\u2019t do much traveling for WNBA games anymore. But when Indiana comes to the Moda Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,167252,82,630],"class_list":["post-459929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-smith-berry-farms","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929","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=459929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}