{"id":471227,"date":"2026-02-13T00:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/471227\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:05:09","slug":"former-stars-reveal-what-makes-portland-womens-basketball-fans-the-best-in-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/471227\/","title":{"rendered":"Former stars reveal what makes Portland women’s basketball fans the best in the WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

It remains to be seen what the Portland Fire<\/a> will truly look like in their return to the WNBA<\/a> in 2026<\/a>. But former players, coaches and executives have made it clear that there\u2019s already one aspect of the team\u2019s culture that no one needs to worry about: <\/p>\n

The fans. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the best fans, I promise you,\u201d said former Portland Power<\/a> player and Lake Oswego High School alumna Katy Steding<\/a>, who is now an assistant coach at Stanford. \u201cWe had the best fans in the whole country. Very loyal, super supportive, engaged in the game. They were knowledgeable, but they were always on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be easy for Steding to see that, as she was born and raised in the area. Jenny Mowe<\/a>, who is from Joseph and played for the Fire, was also a fan favorite according to teammate Sylvia Crawley<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But even those from across the country said they felt a warm welcome from Portland basketball fans. <\/p>\n

Lin Dunn<\/a> came to Portland to coach the Power in the American Basketball League (and later coached the Seattle Storm in the WNBA) after mostly working in the south. Despite coming in to coach a Portland team that was 5-17 at the time, she said she was immediately embraced by the city. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, I love the city of Portland,\u201d said Dunn, who is now a consultant for the Indiana Fever. \u201cI immediately loved the passion of the fans. And I think the fact that the Portland Fire are coming back to Portland will be a huge asset to the WNBA because of the fans.\u201d <\/p>\n

Opposite Dunn when the Portland Fire played the Seattle Storm was Linda Hargrove, who coached the Fire for the team\u2019s entire first run in Portland. <\/p>\n

\"PortlandThe Portland Fire bench, including DeMya Walker (22) and Vanessa Nygaard (white headband), and their fans feel the thrill of victory as they ride a lead over the league-leading LA Sparks in the final minutes of a hard-fought game in 2001.SP- THE OREGONIAN<\/p>\n

Hargrove said that when she arrived to Portland, Dunn told her that she was inheriting a rabid fanbase that loved basketball. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel, and I don\u2019t know why but, there was such a love for the team there,\u201d said Hargrove. \u201cIt was the city. It was the people in that city. There was just something about them supporting women\u2019s basketball. And I know they do soccer and they do other women\u2019s sports in Portland now as well, but they really did. They really did just have a real close connection with the players and the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the ABL folded in December 1998, the Portland Power was No. 2 in the league in attendance. But that excitement about women\u2019s basketball was there from the beginning. <\/p>\n

According to Linda Weston<\/a>, the general manager of the Power, the team brought in 9,000 fans for opening night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in 1996 despite being a brand new team with a limited marketing budget. <\/p>\n

Crawley has the unique distinction of having played for both the Portland Power and the Fire in their first run in the WNBA. She said the fanbase made the players want to work even harder. <\/p>\n

Crawley said Fire fans would stand in the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) until the team scored their first points of the game. It made the Fire want to get the scoring going early so the fans could take their seats. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fans were there through thick and thin, rain or shine,\u201d Crawley told The Oregonian\/OregonLive. \u201cWe wanted to win so bad for them because they would cheer and they stood up until we scored a basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawley even credited the Portland fans for getting her an invite to the 2000 WNBA All-Star Game. Crawley led the Fire in scoring in 2000, but her name was left off the all-star ballot. She said Portland fans were irate with the WNBA and petitioned the WNBA to get her name added to the all-star ballot. <\/p>\n

The WNBA responded by telling Portland fans to vote for Crawley as a write-in candidate. And even though the votes pretty much only came from Portland, Crawley was still invited to go to Phoenix for the All-Star Game as an alternate. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy name wasn\u2019t listed for, like, people who weren\u2019t our fans,\u201d said Crawley, the Fire\u2019s all-time leader in career points, rebounds and blocks. \u201cYou know, when they\u2019re looking at the list, they don\u2019t see my name, so they don\u2019t vote for me. Only our fans knew to do that. Like, what fans do that? You know, they\u2019re just like, \u2018Hey. We want Crawley\u2019s name on the list.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JackiePortland Fire guard Jackie Stiles takes time to sign autographs for fans before heading into the locker room for interviews after a game in 2001.LC- THE OREGONIAN<\/p>\n

Jackie Stiles<\/a> was one of the true highlights of the Fire\u2019s original run from 2000-2002. The former Rookie of the Year and Women\u2019s Basketball Hall of Famer said she\u2019s always remembered the Portland fanbase as the best in the league. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis community, they supported us so much,\u201d Stiles said. \u201cI mean, I know I\u2019m biased, but it was the best place in the WNBA to play, and we had an incredible crowd, and this community deserves to have another team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It remains to be seen what the Portland Fire will truly look like in their return to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,167252,82,630],"class_list":["post-471227","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\/471227","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=471227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}