Temi Fagbenle helped the Golden State Valkyries make it to the WNBA playoffs in their expansion year. The centre thinks anything is possible for Toronto's expansion team in its inaugural season.Craig Lassig/The Associated Press
At the Toronto Tempo’s training camp, Temi Fagbenle lets her presence be known. She’s consistently encouraging her new teammates during scrimmages, group huddles and from the sidelines.
Toronto is Fagbenle’s fourth WNBA team. She’s had previous stints in Minnesota – where she won the 2017 WNBA championship – Indiana and most recently with the Golden State Valkyries for the team’s inaugural season in 2025.
Fagbenle, 33, is one of five rostered Tempo players with five-or-more years of WNBA experience, meaning the expansion franchise will rely on her defence, interior presence and her leadership.
At Fagbenle’s exit interview with Golden State in September, she noted that despite becoming a vocal person, her career hasn’t always lent itself to that role.
“[I] started off playing tennis and that’s a very individual sport, and so, coming to basketball, where you got 10 other people, 11 other people on your team, it’s like, ‘Oh, you can’t be an introvert here,’” Fagbenle told reporters in San Francisco in September. “You have to help, you have to be selfless, you have to talk, you have to give eye contact – do all the things that you don’t want to do and that doesn’t come naturally.”
Tempo Tempo open first-ever training camp, setting inaugural season in motion
Toronto signed the 6-foot-4 centre on April 14. She’s averaged five points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists across her five-season career.
After practice on Monday, Fagbenle said her role varies depending on the team she laces up for.
“This team, yeah, I would say I’m more of a leader,” Fagbenle said. “I would like it to be more of a leading by example, rather than just vocally, even though vocally is important.”
Brittney Sykes, a nine-year WNBA veteran, said Fagbenle, whom she calls “twinkle toes” due to her great footwork in the paint, spoke about giving teammates grace during Toronto’s first season.
“She reminds us that we’re all human; we’re all going through this at the same time,” Sykes said. “It’s all new, so let’s allow grace to lead our actions instead of frustration.”
Fagbenle spent the previous off-season with the Lunar Owls of the Unrivaled league. While she prefers to lead by example, the 33-year-old has grown into becoming a vocal leader.Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images
Part of Fagbenle’s graceful approach comes from wanting to treat people how you’d want them to treat you.
“We have so many other opponents. We have a long season, so many games to fight everyone else,” Fagbenle said. “The last thing we need to be doing is fighting each other in practice.”
At practice, head coach Sandy Brondello said that Fagbenle’s last two seasons have been her best. In Golden State, the Baltimore, Md. product posted career bests in points (7.4), rebounds (4.9), assists (1.6) and steals (0.9) through 23.7 minutes over 39 games – she started 38 of those contests.
“She’s obviously at her best playing, and we’re happy to have her,” Brondello said.
Her career year came with an expansion franchise, which means she understands the newness, history and pressure that the 2026 Tempo season will bring.
“You can tend to be overwhelmed a little bit about that – whether that’s the energy from outside, energy from inside – everyone’s got a new job,” Fagbenle said. “Everyone wants to do the best that they can and give their all, so it’s important to stay grounded.”
Sykes, who earned WNBA all-defensive first team honours in 2021 and 2023, and all-defensive second-team nods in 2020 and 2022, said that because everything is new, it means they get to lay the foundation of what Tempo basketball looks like.
“We can build something really special,” Sykes said. “Just because it’s our first year, it doesn’t mean that we have to live by it; we can still play as if we weren’t a first-year team.”
Fagbenle said that if Toronto can channel what she’s seen over the last two days – the energy, fight and passion – into something positive, then “the sky’s the limit.”
“As long as we keep building every day, I think we’re gonna shock the world,” she said.