{"id":75683,"date":"2025-08-17T05:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75683\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T05:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T05:33:07","slug":"storm-dream-players-break-silence-on-wnbas-historic-moment-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/75683\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm, Dream players break silence on WNBA\u2019s \u2018historic moment\u2019 in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post Storm, Dream players break silence on WNBA\u2019s \u2018historic moment\u2019 in Canada<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Seattle Storm<\/a> and Atlanta Dream<\/a> were locked in for a crucial showdown as both teams aim to solidify their playoff positions. Despite having two very opposite journeys leading up to the August 15 game \u2014 the Storm had dropped six straight while the Dream were the winners of six straight \u2014 the dueling sides were in agreement about one thing: It was an honor to play in the WNBA\u2019s first-ever regular-season game outside of the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Although the Dream were officially the \u201chome\u201d team, completing a home-and-home series after beating the Storm in Seattle<\/a> just a few days before, the Pacific Northwest city was only 140 miles from Vancouver\u2019s Rogers Arena, where the monumental game was taking place in front of 16,000 people. Storm fans were out in full effect as a result, but stars from each squad felt the love from the Canadian women\u2019s basketball fanbase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere was great,\u201d the Dream\u2019s star center Brionna Jones said. \u201cI think the fans were really into the game and enthusiastic, so it was great playing in front of this crowd and in this arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contest isn\u2019t the first time a Canadian crowd got to witness a WNBA game up close. The Storm also made the trip north of the border<\/a> to Edmonton, Alberta, last season to take on the Los Angeles Sparks in a May 2024 preseason matchup. Star veteran Nneka Ogwumike reflected on getting the chance to experience the special event for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cEdmonton came with it too last year, you know,\u201d Ogwumike said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to be in this region. For us to be able to play the international games in Canada and for us to also be the first international game in regular-season play, it shows the growth of this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, superstar guard Skylar Diggins, who put up a double-double on her own, didn\u2019t mince words when expressing the connection she felt to the crowd, which was filled with fans in Storm merch who ended up having a notable impact on the Storm\u2019s 80-78 win.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was an incredible crowd tonight,\u201d Diggins said. \u201cFirst time in Vancouver, they showed a lot of love. We just love coming out here, playing in front of this electric [crowd]. I know it was a Dream home game, but it felt like a Storm home game. We really leaned on them tonight to help us lock in that victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta star guard Rhyne Howard<\/a> doubled down on Diggins\u2019 sentiments after the final buzzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFelt like a home game for Seattle, honestly,\u201d Howard echoed. \u201cFor us to play in front of that many fans, it isn\u2019t foreign to us, but for us to do it here, in this historic moment, it felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle came into this contest after plummeting<\/a> from five games above .500 to sitting a game below the mark and in seventh in the WNBA playoff standings. With the Storm battling it out for the much-needed and narrow victory, head coach Noelle Quinn\u2019s focus was understandably more on the final outcome on the court than on the historical significance off of it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBig blocks by Ezi [Magbegor], big defensive stops by the group and just willed ourselves to this victory,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in it like this the last couple of weeks, so it\u2019s just kind of the same routine, persevering through each moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

WNBA games are set to become a normal occurrence in Canada, as the expansion Toronto Tempo are preparing to make their league debut<\/a> in the 2026 WNBA season, alongside another Pacific Northwest team in the Portland Fire.<\/p>\n

Canadians are no strangers to supporting professional basketball teams, as the logos for the Tempo and now-defunct Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA could be spotted prominently in the arena as well. And the excitement doesn\u2019t stop there \u2014 Tempo president Teresa Resch and general manager Monica Wright Rogers revealed during Friday\u2019s faceoff that the Tempo will make the cross-country trip to host two games in Vancouver during their inaugural season, giving Canadian basketball fans even more to look forward to.<\/p>\n

Related: Sabrina Ionescu, Spike Lee debut new Nike Sabrina 3 PE<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related: 3 WNBA players earn higher ratings than Caitlin Clark in NBA 2K26<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post Storm, Dream players break silence on WNBA\u2019s \u2018historic moment\u2019 in Canada appeared first on ClutchPoints. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[732,6739,49,48,632,4653,6740,1611,4647,82,46428,43807,55,630,22432],"class_list":["post-75683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-brionna-jones","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-nneka-ogwumike","tag-rhyne-howard","tag-seattle-storm","tag-skylar-diggins","tag-sports","tag-storm-fans","tag-the-dream","tag-vancouver","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75683","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=75683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}