TORONTO \u2014 A little more than three years ago, Bridget Carleton played her first professional WNBA game in her home country.<\/p>\n
While just an exhibition, the first WNBA Canada Game between Carleton\u2019s Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky on May 13, 2023, drew more than 19,000 fans to Toronto\u2019s Scotiabank Arena. Born and raised in Chatham, Ont., Carleton \u2013 the sole Canadian in the game \u2013 was the star of the weekend.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday, Carleton returned to Toronto to play her first regular-season WNBA game in Canada, helping her Portland Fire squad to a decisive 99-80 victory over the Tempo in a meeting of the league\u2019s two new expansion franchises.<\/p>\n
The veteran shooting guard says the three years in between those two games were all about growth. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve changed so much [since the 2023 Toronto game],\u201d Carleton said after her team practised at Toronto Metropolitan University on Friday afternoon. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve just evolved so much in the last three years as a leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve come into my own as a basketball player, even as a person. Just being confident in who I am at the WNBA level.\u201d<\/p>\n
After seven seasons with the Lynx, Carleton (who turned 29 years old on May 22) was an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2026 WNBA season. Toronto and Portland could each choose one free agent under the rules of the expansion draft. After being left unprotected by the Lynx, Carleton was up for grabs.<\/p>\n
The Tempo opted to receive a higher draft pick in the college entry draft after winning a league-issued coin toss. That left the first pick in the expansion draft to the Fire, who made a statement by choosing Carleton. It drew a big reaction both at the Tempo\u2019s press conference and online from Canadian fans who hoped Carleton would be coming home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited to be picked number one. I think Portland wanted me, and they showed that by picking me first overall,\u201d Carleton said when asked about her reaction to the pick. \u201cThey were aggressive in wanting me, and they\u2019ve proven that since that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire head coach Alex Sarama said after Friday\u2019s practice that the team couldn\u2019t pass on adding an experienced veteran like Carleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologized to all my Canadian friends at the time [for taking Carleton before Toronto could],\u201d Sarama said. \u201c\u2026She\u2019s just the ultimate team player. I think it\u2019s really important to build an expansion team around someone who just brings so much to the locker room. That\u2019s the kind of culture we\u2019re trying to build here \u2013 joy, grit, resilience, playing the best brand of collective team basketball in the WNBA, and I think that\u2019s where BC fits in perfectly. She just ticks every box.\u201d<\/p>\n
After spending the beginning of her career playing an off-the-bench role for the Lynx, Carleton transitioned into a starting role in 2024. She contributed to a successful season as Minnesota made it all the way to the WNBA Finals, ultimately losing that series in a decisive Game 5 to the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n
Carleton has also been the top offensive option for the Canadian Women\u2019s National Team over the past few years. Despite an early exit for Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Carleton averaged 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in that tournament with a standout 19-point performance against Australia.<\/p>\n
She joined the national team again in 2026 for the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, and despite the team not making it to the tournament in September, Carleton was impressive. She averaged 13.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists through five games. Her standout performance that week was a 24-point showing against Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy for Bridget to be in the position that she is in Portland,\u201d her Team Canada teammate and current Tempo guard Kia Nurse said after Saturday\u2019s game. \u201cI think it\u2019s great that on this level and this stage in the WNBA that she\u2019s getting the opportunity to really show what she can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carleton has also opted to play overseas in Europe during the winters, having breakout seasons in Hungary and the Czech Republic over the past few years. With ZVVZ USK Praha in Prague this past season, she averaged 12.6 points per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s played a heightened role in her European teams,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s just not as televised, people haven\u2019t been able to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being chosen in the expansion draft as Portland\u2019s sole unrestricted free agent, Carleton was eligible for a max contract. She signed a three-year deal worth a culminative $3.7 million (U.S), solidifying herself as Portland\u2019s core-designated franchise player until the end of the 2028 WNBA season.<\/p>\n
She is the first Canadian to receive a million-dollar WNBA contract under the league\u2019s new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives us a lot of joy as a staff, seeing how she\u2019s stepped into this leadership role,\u201d Sarama said. \u201cI think it\u2019s been, it\u2019s been really cool just to see how she\u2019s stepped up, not just offensively, but she\u2019s one of our best defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s really setting that tone and helping us build that defensive identity with her point of attack defence. I\u2019m so excited that she\u2019s with us on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carleton scored 15 points on 50 per cent shooting from three-point range on Saturday night. It was the only time this season that Carleton and the Fire will play in Toronto, with the next match between Toronto and Portland happening in Vancouver in August.<\/p>\n
While it may not be with her hometown team, Carleton is still representing Canada on the biggest women\u2019s basketball stage. Her development over the past eight years in the WNBA, and the four before that as a player at Iowa State University, is proof of the growing women\u2019s basketball talent coming out of Canada.<\/p>\n
While she is the first Canadian in WNBA history to sign a million-dollar contract, she won\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A little more than three years ago, Bridget Carleton played her first professional WNBA game in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[26839,49,48,15702,82,630],"class_list":["post-693589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-bridget-carleton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-kia-nurse","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693589","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=693589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}