Toronto, ON – April 20: Guard #11 Kia Nurse practices with other players on the Tempo WNBA team during training camp at the University of Toronto. PD Nick Lachance/Toronto Star Nick Lachance/Toronto Star (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Kia Nurse found herself overwhelmed, nervous and stressed out.
Because of delayed collective bargaining agreement negotiations, the WNBA free agency period was condensed to just about a week-plus. The former UConn women’s basketball star had just about a week to figure out where she’d be living, which team she’d play for and if she would need to organize travel for her dog.
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Thankfully, she was home in Hamilton, Ontario, and called upon some of her closest friends for peace. Nurse and her friends gathered in their comfy clothes, turned on Netflix and filled their plates with junk food, allowing Nurse to completely relax and vent.
That night in turned out to be everything she needed and more.
“I was having a pretty rough time, just like sitting in free agency, because there was such an uncertainty,” Nurse said Monday afternoon during the Toronto Tempo’s Media Day. “… In my head, I sat there and I was like, this could happen at any point in the season, because seasons are rocky, right?
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“There’s ups and there’s downs to it, and at any point when I need to get away from it, I can sit in this basement, turn on Netflix with my friends that give two (expletives) about how I played that day and only care about me as a human being, and be OK. And I think in that moment, I was like, ‘I want to be home.’”
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Nurse begins her eighth year in the WNBA, representing her home country and playing with the Toronto Tempo in the franchise’s debut season in the league. The former Husky knows coming home to Canada means so much more than just being an hour from where she grew up.
On Wednesday, the Tempo, the WNBA’s first-ever international team, will host its unofficial home opener against the Connecticut Sun in the teams’ first preseason game of the year. The game will not only be a homecoming for Nurse, but also for fellow Canadian and former Husky Aaliyah Edwards. Both understand this is the start of a new era of women’s basketball in Canada.
“This is Canada’s team for a reason, and it’s one of the things that I’ve tried to allude to and teach my teammates about pretty early on, is that we are a city, but it’s not just the city that’s cheering for us, right? It’s an entire country,” said Nurse.
“… I think it’s really special that this organization being the first of its kind globally, first global team or international team for the WNBA, first WNBA team in Canada, to go into these cities and create this place of belonging, because that’s what sport is, right? It’s a place where you belong. It’s a place where you can look out on the court and see somebody that looks like you and resonate with them, resonate with their story. To be able to do that across Canada is truly special.”
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Toronto, ON – April 20: Guard #11 Kia Nurse practices with other players on the Tempo WNBA team during training camp at the University of Toronto. PD Nick Lachance/Toronto Star Nick Lachance/Toronto Star (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Nurse, who played at UConn from 2014 to 2018, signed a one-year deal with the Tempo after playing for five different teams within the last six years. The former Husky was drafted No. 10 overall by New York in 2018 and spent three seasons with the Liberty before being traded to Phoenix in 2021.
While with the Mercury, she tore her ACL during the 2021 Playoffs and missed the entire 2022 season recovering. In 2023, she signed with Seattle but averaged a career-low 5.9 points per game and found herself traded to Los Angeles before the following season.
Nurse started in 27 of the Sparks’ 40 games in 2024, and while she got her points back up, she averaged a career-low in rebounds with just 1.6 per game. Last season, she joined Chicago and averaged 7.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 21.9 minutes per game. Nurse said Monday that she knew she needed a change of scenery this year.
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“I came from a different situation last year where I felt a lot of negativity from kind of like, an online situation,” she said. “And so, coming here, it was, like, so much love and so much positivity. And I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ This is just such a different feeling to be in this place.”
For Nurse, coming home to Toronto meant getting the chance to share her basketball journey with her family and friends and be more present at home.
“I go home on off days, or if I just feel like it. Like, if I want to go sit in my home in Hamilton, I go do that, put the dog in the car, and we go,” she said. “I sit there, and I’m like, ‘This is so weird.’ Because usually I’m gone for six months. I don’t get to come back to these kind of quiet places that are very much my own and very much me. And so, I feel very grateful for that opportunity.”
Even more importantly, Nurse knows this is a chance to represent Canada in the WNBA and help inspire young Canadian basketball players for generations to come.
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“I’m grateful for the opportunity to be on this stage and to be given this platform for growing Canada women’s basketball in Canada,” she said. “… It’s really special, and it’s kind of a full circle moment that if you sit down and think about everything that you’ve gone through in your career, at some point it all had to make sense. And I think being able to play at home now, it all kind of makes sense, and it all feels like it’s where it’s exactly supposed to be and where I’m exactly supposed to be.”
Nurse said she’s having fun introducing her new Tempo teammates to Canada and helping them adjust to the country’s way of life, including ketchup chip taste testing, street sign lessons, grocery store tips and figuring out how to stream TV shows and movies online. She’s excited for Wednesday’s preseason game and the expected reception of the new franchise.
Edwards is from about two hours northwest of Toronto in Kingston, Ontario. She’s also excited that Canada now has its own WNBA team and said she’s expecting about 200 of her family and close friends to attend Wednesday’s game. It’ll mark the second time the former Husky has played in her home country for a team outside of Canada, following UConn’s trip to Toronto in 2023 when it faced Toronto Metropolitan University.
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“Oh my gosh, I’m so excited,” she told CT Insider during the Sun’s training camp on April 23. “I’m gonna get all the feels. … I’m excited for my teammates to explore my country, (I’m) looking to take them out to dinner when we get down there.”