Twenty-two-year-old Portland Fire guard Carla Leite arrived in Portland last May relatively unknown.

Leite now enters the WNBA offseason as the Fire’s top scorer with a cult-like following.

The French basketball star spent just one season in the WNBA with the Golden State Valkyries before coming to the Rose City. In the Bay area, she was a bench player, averaging seven points per game.

“That’s crazy,” Leite said, thinking back to her transition from Golden State to Portland while catching her breath after a come-from-behind overtime victory against her old team in the last game of the season. Leite made the final Fire points in overtime, and ended the season with an average of 16 points per game.

“Sometimes I just remind myself — and I’m like, last year, it was so hard for me,” Leite told reporters. “I mean, I really enjoy my time there, but my role here is really different, and my teammates and the staff just let me be who I am, on the court and off the court. It’s just special to be here.”

The Fire started play this summer during an economically and culturally challenging time in Oregon. The state still hasn’t recovered economically from the pandemic downturn. That’s left Portland with a hollowed-out downtown, and families and businesses across the state struggling to make ends meet.

Sports can offer a welcome distraction, but this year Oregonians have felt anxiety around the state’s NBA team. Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon has an unspoken threat that he may try to move the team if the city doesn’t pony up millions in public funding to renovate the Moda Center.

The state needed a win, and 15 charismatic, competitive and compassionate WNBA players came through in the clutch.

Leaving their hearts on the court

Fire general manager Vanja Černivec had a feeling Leite’s drive to improve on her already considerable skill base would resonate with Portland fans. Černivec, who worked with Leite at Golden State, describes the young guard as a fearless player who brings joy to every game and practice.

After choosing Leite and 11 other players during the expansion draft in April, Černivec predicted those personalities would click with a fan base already known for supporting female athletes.

“I’m 100% sure they’re going to see a team that’s going to compete every day,” Černivec said, “that’s going to uplift each other, they’re going to play for each other, and I’m sure they leave their hearts on the court.”

But it was a bumpy rollout to the WNBA’s return to Portland after a 24-year hiatus.

The first president of the rekindled Fire, Inky Son, was only with the team a few months before departing back to the East Coast. Longtime Nike executive Clare Hamill took over as interim president (she has since had the “interim” dropped from her title).

The Fire management team could only watch as contentious contract negotiations dragged on between the WNBA and the players’ union. Those talks led to a historic collective bargaining agreement that exponentially increased player pay and benefits. But the late settlement meant Portland had just six weeks to build its roster, a process that typically takes five to six months.

There was also some fan discourse around things like the team name, which some criticized as insensitive in a state plagued by wildfires. But rekindling the name from the original Portland WNBA team allowed the owners of the new Fire franchise, Raj Sports, to lean into the theme of continuing a legacy.

That appears to have worked. At the first game, the team gifted the sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 each with a T-shirt claiming “Legacy reignited.” The shirts can be spotted on Portlanders across the city outside of game days.

Despite a losing record, average attendance through more than 20 home games was around 14,000 — fourth among the WNBA’s 15 teams.

Staying together

Portland Fire’s roster is made of players who, while fiercely competitive, were accustomed to support roles on their WNBA teams. Once in the Rose City, they were asked to become team leaders. More so, fans treat the players like superstars.

The adjustment has opened up players’ playing styles and personalities, and the Fire fan base has been eager to connect. Leite’s die-hard fans know her as a perfectionist. After games in which she was the high scorer or doled out the most assists, Leite often focuses instead on mistakes she wants to correct.

“Four turnovers again tonight, so I have to be better on that,” Leite told reporters after the team pulled off a dominant 100-84 win over the Indiana Fever on May 30.

Leite finished that game with 18 points and 12 assists. It’s that perfectionism, toughness on the floor, and shyness behind the microphone (even though her French accent immediately soothes any listener) that fans fell for.

Leite’s teammate, Emily Engstler, said the most successful thing the Fire did this season was bond.

Engstler made her comments after a bruising loss to Phoenix, 94-91, on Sept. 17. The Fire had beaten the Phoenix Mercury earlier in the season, and finished with a better record. But the Fire were shorthanded and ultimately couldn’t pull off the win.

After a game like that, Engstler said they still have the “utmost respect for each other” and that they bounce back well.

“We didn’t win every game,” Engstler said of the season overall, “Yeah, we didn’t make playoffs, but now we know how it feels. And we know that when things get hard, we’re going to stay together.”

After the loss to Phoenix, the Fire only had one more home game left. Engstler said it would be great to see her team come out strong and win. Engstler spoke the win into existence — the final home game was that overtime victory against the Valkyries.

Beating expectations

The climactic win against one of the best teams in the league highlighted what Portland did all season: beat expectations. As an expansion team, they weren’t expected to win many games. But they finished ninth overall — the best team outside the playoffs — with a record of 17 wins and 27 losses.

Some of those wins grabbed national attention and provided lasting memories for fans. The Fire beat the 2024 champion New York Liberty on a buzzer-beater in just their second game of the season. The Fire also notched a win against the Indiana Fever in which the team held the Fever’s Caitlin Clark — one of the world’s most famous athletes — to just six points.

There were also some heartbreaking losses, like when the Fire visited the Washington Mystics in June and lost by one point in quadruple — yes, quadruple — overtime.

Portland showed up at Moda Center in numbers that rivaled perennial playoff teams all season. Each game had a festive atmosphere where fans of various ages, abilities, races, sexual orientations and gender identities sported homemade Fire T-shirts and signs.

Only when the Indiana Fever visited in late July did Fire fans turn negative. Every time Indiana forward Sophie Cunningham entered the game, Portland fans booed. Days before the game, Cunningham had publicly said she doesn’t support transgender girls playing in girls sports leagues. In response, fans brought flags to wave in support of transgender people.

Cunningham’s comments were picked up by anti-trans activists, who staged small protests outside games in Portland and Seattle in support of Cunningham. The conflict between supporters and opponents of trans rights flared again at the Portland women’s sports bar, The Sports Bra, when the Fire were playing an away game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

In a league with a history of strong queer representation, many players and coaches countered Cunningham’s comments by wearing shirts or making comments in support of trans athletes. In response, Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said transgender athletes are not a barrier to growing women’s sports, but unequal access to facilities and lack of investment instead stifle growth.

The controversy over Cunningham’s remarks is an example of some of the growing pains the WNBA experienced this season as it continues to move from an infant league to a cultural phenomenon. There were also controversies around referee treatment of famous players, a chaotic All-Star weekend with public romantic quarrels, and an announcement from the commissioner that she’s retiring at the end of the season.

But the casual Portland Fire fan could have missed it all. Home games were filled with enthusiastic fans, both new to the WNBA and those who were season ticket holders to the original Portland Fire, sporting homemade friendship bracelets, pins and whole Fire-themed outfits.

At the last game, the Fire faithful cheered as if they had won a championship.

‘It’s going to be even better next year”

Earlier in the season, Fire Center Megan DiLeo described her teammates as previously overlooked players that came to Portland with a chip on their shoulders. That shared history helped them connect with each other quickly, she said, and support each other when things got tough.

“We’ve all come together and we just wanted to play with each other and share the ball and play hard defense,” DiLeo said after the final game of the season. “Obviously, it feels good to go out on a win, but truly we just kind of kept the culture of what we wanted to bring into this program. We wanted to bring selflessness throughout the entire thing — and I think we’ve accomplished that.”

Fire players have options during the offseason. DiLeo said she plans to stay in the U.S. and train, although she is also a Spanish citizen and member of Spain’s national team. Other international stars, like Leite, will play in other countries during the WNBA offseason. Some will play in emerging U.S. leagues such as Unrivaled and Athlete’s Unlimited.

Next season, the Fire are also looking forward to welcoming young star Iyana Martín of Spain. Martín was a relative unknown when the Fire selected her in the first round of the rookie draft, and fans didn’t get to see her play this season as she stayed in Europe for injury recovery. Martín was healthy for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup this month, when she earned the “rising star” award for her impact as a young player.

The team is also looking for more from players who have already logged some playing time for the Fire, like recently signed guard Charisma Osborne. The team will also welcome back injured players.

“We’re super young and we’re going to keep growing and learning from each other,” DiLeo said. “We have a long offseason, but people are going to get better and get to work, and it’s going to be even better next year.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/09/26/portland-fire-basketball-women-sports-oregon-wnba/