{"id":438492,"date":"2026-01-30T08:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:14:11","slug":"ive-gotten-that-closure-portland-fire-legend-jackie-stiles-excited-for-teams-return-to-the-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/438492\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve gotten that closure\u2019: Portland Fire legend Jackie Stiles excited for team\u2019s return to the WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Jackie Stiles put on the Portland Fire\u2019s<\/a> red \u201cExplorer\u201d jersey<\/a> on Wednesday afternoon, it was like a weight of 20-plus years was finally lifted.<\/p>\n

A 5-foot-8 guard out of Missouri State, Stiles was one of the true highlights of the Portland Fire\u2019s first run. <\/p>\n

She was selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2001 WNBA Draft and quickly made an impact on the league. Stiles led the Fire in scoring in 2001 with 14.9 points per game and made 40.5% of her shots from beyond the arc. <\/p>\n

She was named WNBA\u2019s Rookie of the Year and was a WNBA All-Star, wowing audiences with her ability to shoot 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Stiles missed significant playing time with injuries. She played in 21 games and only started three times while averaging six points per game. <\/p>\n

And then the Fire was gone.<\/p>\n

\"JackieJackie Stiles takes the court during starting line-up announcements at a Fire game in 2001. LC- THE OREGONIAN<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just crushing when you know, I finished my second season and all of a sudden, I\u2019m at home in the off season and I get a phone call that the Portland Fire is no longer going to exist,\u201d Stiles said. \u201cAnd it was a grieving period because it\u2019s like, OK, what do you do now? And it was really difficult not having that closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stiles spent a year playing for the Lubbock Hawks of the National Women\u2019s Basketball League. She spent a year playing for Australia\u2019s Canberra Capitals. Then she spent a decade as an assistant coach at multiple colleges. <\/p>\n

Twenty-four years have passed and Stiles said she finally felt at peace when hearing that the Portland Fire were returning in 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve gotten that closure now when now we\u2019re promoting this brand new team,\u201d she said as part of a panel aboard the Portland Spirit on Wednesday afternoon to view the giant Fire jersey suspended over the Willamette River<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Stiles said she felt a tremendous amount of pressure when she was a rookie with the Fire, as she was the team\u2019s first draft pick in 2001, set the NCAA record for scoring (3,393 points) and quickly felt a wave of support from the Portland fans. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust the way the community supported us, I wanted to make them proud,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"PortlandPortland Fire players Jackie Stiles, left, Kristin Folkl, middle, and Carolyn Young joke around in the locker room after a Fire game in 2001.LC- THE OREGONIAN<\/p>\n

Stiles said that pressure turned into a strong competitive fire. She looked back to an exhibition game from her rookie season. With the game tied up, Stiles demanded the ball in the team huddle. <\/p>\n

Reminiscing on the game, Stiles said she can\u2019t believe how bold she was, asking to take the final shot as a rookie. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give them something to cheer about,\u201d Stiles said. \u201cSo I put my heart on the floor every time I stepped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of the Women\u2019s Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2016, Stiles has been involved with a lot of the Fire\u2019s marketing heading into the 2026 debut season. <\/p>\n

She said she is looking forward to seeing the return of Fire basketball to Portland this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI told my second grade teacher I was going to play professional basketball one day but the WNBA didn\u2019t exist at that point,\u201d she said. \u201cSo now with the opportunity to play in Portland, it\u2019s a tremendous city and (the players) have that platform to be able to inspire so many people watching these girls or these young women run out and do something that they love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Jackie Stiles put on the Portland Fire\u2019s red \u201cExplorer\u201d jersey on Wednesday afternoon, it was like a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[178125,99,434],"class_list":["post-438492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-smith-berry-farms","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}