PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 The Portland Fire have hired Golden State Valkyries executive Vanja Cernivec as the expansion WNBA team’s new general manager, the Fire announced Monday.<\/p>\n
Cernivec has served as vice president of basketball operations for the Valkyries since June 2024, helping build the team ahead of its first year in the league.<\/p>\n
With the Fire, Cernivec will oversee all basketball operations, including the search for a head coach and the construction of the team’s first roster. She’ll start on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cPortland is a city with a deep passion for the game, and I want this team to reflect that energy in this new era \u2014 rooted in legacy, fuelled by passion, and driven by a relentless pursuit of excellence,” Cernivec said in a statement released by the Fire.<\/p>\n
The expansion Fire begin play next season, along with the Toronto Tempo.<\/p>\n
“Vanja is a visionary, and we are confident she will help define what this franchise can be,\u201d Fire co-owner Lisa Bhathal Merage said. \u201cAs a foundational leader in this new chapter for the Fire, she brings the experience, integrity, and passion for advancing the women\u2019s game that this moment demands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cernivec has also worked with the NBA’s Basketball without Borders program, and was a scout for the Chicago Bulls from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n
Her appointment as general manager of the Fire was first reported by a local media outlet, the Rose Garden Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 The Portland Fire have hired Golden State Valkyries executive Vanja Cernivec as the expansion WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-96483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96483","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=96483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}