General manager Monica Wright Rogers speaks at a preview event that teed up the Toronto Tempo's inaugural season.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Monica Wright Rogers savours the echoes of basketball practice these days, especially after all those months she waited eagerly to add the first players to the Toronto Tempo roster.
A former WNBA player with two championships on her resume, she’s the general manager of Canada’s first expansion franchise, set to tip off its inaugural season on May 8. A lifetime in basketball has readied the 37-year-old first-time GM for this.
Observing practices with the squad she’s freshly assembled in Toronto, she often touches base with each player and coach as they wrap up and leave the gym. Quick hellos, injury check-ins, casual fist-bumps.
“I love the sounds of balls bouncing, players yelling and coaches’ whistles. It’s all part of something that we didn’t have for a long time because we were in build mode,” Wright Rogers said in a courtside interview at training camp.
“It’s been a long time coming to see this vision in person.”
She’s been on the job since February of 2025, but she was only able to start adding players last month, so everything now is moving full throttle.
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When all off-season business was paused across the league this winter because the WNBA and its players had not yet agreed on their transformative new collective bargaining agreement, Wright Rogers could not talk to potential players for her team. But she could watch them play.
So she travelled far and wide to do that with assistant GM Eli Horowitz, including to off-season leagues all over Europe. She could speak with their agents. So she peddled the vision to them, of players blazing trails in a brand-new WNBA market. Her pitch: “Firsts are forever.”
“That’s where I had to start telling the story of what we’re building here,” said Wright Rogers. “These players being firsts would be a forever thing for our organization, the city, the country.”
After all, she had been sold on the franchise herself.
Four WNBA teams interviewed Wright Rogers for their general manager openings. At the time, she was the assistant GM for the Phoenix Mercury. She said Toronto blew her away during the interview process. She quickly wanted to work with Larry Tanenbaum and team president Teresa Resch. Plus tennis icon Serena Williams, part of Tempo ownership, made a big impression while interviewing Wright Rogers for the job.
“She was tough. I absolutely respect her because she left no stone unturned in that interview. She was good, like wow,” recalled Wright Rogers. “She is the G.O.A.T. for a reason.”
Tempo president Teresa Resch, right, hired Wright Rogers to construct the team from scratch.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
When Resch introduced Wright Rogers as general manager in a press conference last winter, she said the Tempo highly valued a relationship-builder and someone good at bringing people together. “Those are two of your superpowers,” Resch said, looking at her new GM.
Building a WNBA expansion franchise is hard work, and history shows it hasn’t gone well for many past teams. The league has had waves of rapid growth over its three decades, then contraction, teams folding under financial strain or relocating. The Golden State Valkyries got it right when they debuted in 2025, during a boom for the league. They made the playoffs in their first season and sold out every game. Toronto is determined to contend immediately too.
The style of play has evolved in the WNBA. Players aren’t fixed at one position; it demands flexibility. Wright Rogers’s staff has sought versatile players – guards who can score on three levels, post players with both perimeter and inside strengths.
She leans on years of knowledge in the game.
Growing up in a military family, she moved around a lot, before they made Woodbridge, Va., a suburb of Washington, home. She was one of America’s top high-school basketball recruits before she chose to play at the University of Virginia.
In a stellar NCAA career from 2006-10, she earned many accolades in the Atlantic Coast Conference and was national defensive player of the year as a senior. The Minnesota Lynx picked her second overall in the 2010 WNBA draft.
She won two WNBA titles with the Lynx in 2011 and 2013. Wright Rogers also spent time with the Seattle Storm, and played in off-season leagues in Poland, Turkey, Australia and Iceland, before retiring in 2016.
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During her playing career, she had a stint as secretary-treasurer for the WNBA Players Association, as it was just starting to push for better pay and working conditions. That gives her a deep appreciation for why the players fought this off-season for a new CBA.
“It took time for us to get to where we are now, but it started about 10 years ago,” said Wright Rogers. “So I’m so proud of today’s players, proud of our league, and I know we’re helping other women’s leagues globally to do the same thing.”
Once the CBA was settled, opening the door to new, bigger deals for the players, Wright Rogers was thrilled to make Marina Mabrey and Brittney “Slim” Sykes the WNBA’s first million-dollar backcourt.
“I’m so proud to be one of the first to do it, because these players deserve it. They put in the work, and I know firsthand everything that’s sacrificed,” she said. “It was a cool moment, for me and Sandy too.”
Coach Sandy Brondello also played in the league, making the Tempo the WNBA’s only team with former players in the coach and GM jobs.
“As a player, you always like to be coached by and around former players, because they know what it’s like on a day-to-day basis, to show up to practice, to play games in a long season,” said Tempo rookie Kiki Rice, the team’s first selection in the WNBA draft. “I think that’s a really big advantage that we have, to be coached and led by former players.”
Like Wright Rogers, Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello enjoyed a productive WNBA playing career.Bailey McLean/Getty Images
Wright Rogers is among just a small handful of former WNBA players to ever land GM roles in the league. She acknowledged the importance of being a woman and a person of colour in the position. She and husband Michael also juggle raising a five-year-old son, McKale.
“Running a whole organization as a former player, just seemed like it needed to happen in our league, because not many former players are getting chances,” said Wright Rogers. “I felt I needed to step out and do it in order for the betterment of the whole ecosystem.”
Wright Rogers’s line to the GM job wasn’t linear. She also spent time as an assistant coach at her alma mater. Then she pursued the business of basketball, working in the NBA’s New York office, before the AGM job with the Mercury in 2023. In Toronto, she blends all those skills.
“Half my job is corporate. Half my job is high-fiving players like this every day, so it’s a perfect fit for my skillset,” said Wright Rogers. “With my experience, the network and credibility I’ve built, I did not feel uncomfortable applying for a job like this, because I knew I had checked every box.”
There is still much to do before the Tempo begin their long-awaited first season next week at Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum. Getting work permits for players, physicals and making final cuts to the roster.
While Wright Rogers was building the roster, Tempo staff unearthed video of her own WNBA draft night from 2010. They filmed her emotional reaction to watching back footage from 16 years ago, hearing her name called on stage, then hugging her family, including the father who passed away earlier this year. She was reminded how proud that made her family.
It’s never far from her mind how she wants players to feel as professional athletes.
“All the things that stuck with me from being a player, I pull on those things in this job often,” said Wright Rogers. “How people made you feel, the relationships with your teammates, coaches and staff. The goal is for this to be a great experience.”