{"id":683209,"date":"2026-05-21T02:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/683209\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:07:12","slug":"toronto-tempo-make-unique-history-in-inaugural-wnba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/683209\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Tempo Make Unique History in Inaugural WNBA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golden State Valkyries<\/a> set the bar for future WNBA expansion franchises last season. In 2025, the Valkyries finished 23-21 and became the first expansion franchise to reach the playoffs in its inaugural season, all while setting an all-time WNBA attendance record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Toronto<\/a> Tempo<\/a> have accepted the challenge.<\/p>\n

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The Tempo are only five games into their inaugural WNBA season, and they couldn\u2019t have realistically asked for a better start.<\/p>\n

They lost their season opener to the Washington Mystics<\/a>, but they played it before a sold-out crowd <\/a>at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. Former UCLA star Kiki Rice, the franchise\u2019s first-ever draft pick, has shown why she was selected sixth overall in April. But above all, veteran guards Brittney Sykes<\/a> and Marina Mabrey<\/a> are having an out-of-body experience.<\/p>\n

\"TORONTO,TORONTO, ONTARIO \u2013 MAY 13: Marina Mabrey #3 of the Toronto Tempo<\/a> celebrates with teammate Brittney Sykes #20 after defeating the Seattle Storm<\/a> 86-73 at Coca-Cola Coliseum on May 13, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Michael Chisholm\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Tempo defeated the Phoenix Mercury<\/a>, 98-90. Mabrey scored 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting from the floor, including 6-of-14 from three. Sykes, a one-time All-Star and four-time All-Defensive selection, one-upped her, literally \u2014 scoring 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including 4-of-8 from three.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBrittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey are the first teammates in WNBA history to each record 30-points in a single game during a franchise\u2019s first season,\u201d ESPN Insights posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mabrey and Sykes made history in Toronto before the season even started.<\/p>\n

The Tempo selected Mabrey<\/a> from the Connecticut Sun<\/a> and 10 other players in the WNBA Expansion Draft on April 3. About a week later, they signed Sykes<\/a> to a multi-year contract in free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each agreeing to two-year deals at about the max in Year 1, they are the first known million-dollar backcourt pairing under the WNBA\u2019s new collective bargaining agreement and a huge splash for the expansion team,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Alexa Philippou <\/a>reported on April 10.<\/p>\n

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The Tempo (3-2) will next visit the Minnesota Lynx<\/a> (2-2) on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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Start your unlimited Newsweek trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Valkyries set the bar for future WNBA expansion franchises last season. In 2025, the Valkyries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[6738,49,48,3458,153857,152791,1612,52576,13054,736,3461,1611,82,87261,3302,45963,737,630,36516,30324],"class_list":["post-683209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-brittney-sykes","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-expansion-franchise","tag-expansion-franchises","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inaugural-season","tag-marina-mabrey","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sports","tag-tempo","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-history","tag-wnba-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683209","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=683209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}