Los Angeles Sparks guard Julie Allemand was selected by the Toronto Tempo in the WNBA expansion draft.Ross D. Franklin/The Associated Press
The Toronto Tempo took an important step Friday toward building their first-ever roster.
Los Angeles Sparks guard Julie Allemand was the first of 11 players selected by the Tempo in Friday’s WNBA expansion draft ahead of their inaugural season.
The 29-year-old Belgian guard was the second overall choice in the expansion draft, the first chance for the WNBA’s two newest teams – the Tempo and Portland Fire – to acquire players before debuting next month in the WNBA’s 30th season.
The clubs had the chance to draft unprotected players from the league’s 13 existing teams. Toronto put a heavy emphasis on international talent and added two players with WNBA championship experience.
Allemand is an experienced floor general. Nyara Sabally, a 6-foot-5 centre from Germany, was part of the 2024 WNBA title-winning New York Liberty, a team then coached by current Toronto coach Sandy Brondello. Guard Aaliyah Nye is fresh off a title with the Las Vegas Aces, and a player who the Tempo believe to be one of the best sharp-shooters in the league.
In the first round, Toronto also selected guards Marina Mabrey from the Connecticut Sun and Lexi Held from the Phoenix Mercury.
Members of the media watch as the Toronto Tempo roster is announced during a broadcast of the WNBA Expansion Draft, in Toronto, on Friday.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
In the second round Toronto chose all international talent: forwards María Conde of Spain (Golden State Valkyries), Maria Kliundikova (Minnesota Lynx) of Russia and Nikolina Milic (Connecticut Sun) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus French centre Adja Kane (New York Liberty), Latvian guard Kitija Laksa (Phoenix Mercury) and Kristy Wallace (Indiana Fever), a guard from Australia.
The Tempo spoke with all 11 players and their agents on Friday.
“Their excitement made our day,” said Toronto general manager Monica Wright Rogers in a press conference. “It was just amazing to see how just players that don’t know anything about Toronto were excited to come here.”
As the result of a trade earlier this week that landed Toronto an extra pick in the upcoming college draft, the Tempo passed on selecting a player from the Chicago Sky.
Toronto also did not select players from the Seattle Storm, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, and Dallas Wings.
What the president of the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo has learned about the business of sports
Portland had the first pick in Friday’s expansion draft and used it on Canadian Olympian Bridget Carleton.
Toronto won the all-important coin flip last week which determined where the Fire and Tempo would pick in both the expansion and college drafts. So Toronto elected to take the No. 6 pick in the upcoming talent-rich college draft, leaving the No. 7 pick to Portland. That gave the Fire the top pick in Friday’s expansion draft instead.
“We really felt in that top six that we could get a cornerstone player for the Toronto Tempo,” said Eli Horowitz, Toronto’s assistant general manager and senior vice-president of basketball strategy, of the upcoming college draft.
“That is really at the top of our strategy overall … this is just a bigger pool than most years.”
Friday’s expansion draft was the first key piece of business in a hurried off-season leading to the May 8 start of the WNBA season. The expansion draft, free-agency period, college draft and training camps are all held in a dizzying April. That’s because the league and its players’ association were in lengthy negotiations on a transformative new collective bargaining agreement that just got ratified in late March, so it held up key off-season events.
The Tempo and Fire will continue building their teams alongside the other WNBA clubs this month, in the college draft on April 13, and free agency, which will feature some 80 per cent of the WNBA players.
“We’re really excited,” said Wright Rogers. “I think fans and media can just be prepared to see a lot of movement obviously with the new CBA.”