Recruiting Canadian Talent
Getting a WNBA team into Vancouver is one thing, but making it a success is another. The difference between the Raptors, newly minted NBA Champions and one of the most profitable franchises in the NBA today, and Grizzlies, relocated to Memphis in 2001, was a superstar.
Vince Carter ensured the Raptors wouldn’t just stay in Toronto but become a viable franchise. The Vancouver WNBA team would need legitimate stars to keep the fans interested. And it starts locally.
There are currently four active Canadians in the WNBA: Natalie Achonwa, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, Bridget Carleton, and Kia Nurse. All four played for Team Canada at the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
Achonwa is a power forward who once held plenty of promise as a star at Notre Dame. While she hasn’t exactly lit the WNBA on fire to a knee injury, she’s still one of the faces of Canada basketball.
Raincock-Ekunwe grinded her way back to the WNBA. After being undrafted in 2013, she went around Europe playing in the Swiss LNA and the German DBBL before heading to Australia then back to Europe then the U.S. Next stop: Canada?
Carleton and Nurse have the most potential of the four and are still just getting started at 22 and 23, respectively. Carleton was named the Big 12 Player of the Year and a second-team All-American by ESPN for her work in Iowa State.
Nurse was a two-time NCAA Champion, WBCA Defensive Player of the Year, and was just named a WNBA All-Star. She has the potential to be a superstar, especially in the right place like Vancouver.
Achonwa and Raincock-Ekunwe could be drafted by Vancouver in the expansion draft. But getting Carleton and/or Nurse would be a huge coup.
The team doesn’t need to have exclusively Canadian talent or even need to have a homegrown star to succeed. But just imagine the coverage they would get on a national level if they did!