Kia Nurse, seen here getting acknowledgement from the crowd at a Toronto Tempo event, will play in her home country in her eighth WNBA season, after signing with the Tempo last week.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The sounds of sneakers squeaking, whistles blowing and players chanting seeped into the main foyer of the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport at the University of Toronto campus on Sunday.
Below the lobby, a group wearing Tempo Bordeaux coloured pinnies took on a side of players adorning black shirts on the Kimel Family Field House’s court. A digital screen displayed the Canadian flag above one of the basketball hoops – Day 1 of the Toronto Tempo’s training camp was under way.
The WNBA’s recent expansion franchise – alongside the Portland Fire – will spend the next couple of weeks whittling down its roster ahead of tipoff for its inaugural season. Toronto selected 11 players in the expansion draft, added another four in the 2026 WNBA draft and continued its roster building through free agency.
One notable signing is Hamilton’s Kia Nurse, the organization’s first Canadian player. The guard, who signed with the team on April 14, said it felt like the right time to join Canada’s first WNBA franchise.
Nurse, a 2019 WNBA all-star, has averaged 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists over her career. At Sunday’s practice, the three-time Canadian Olympian commended the poise, intensity and “young legs” of the Tempo’s rookies, including Toronto’s first-ever draft pick, Kiki Rice.
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“They weren’t afraid of anything, they asked the right questions, they were tough, they played tough, so I think that’s a really good start,” Nurse said. “We want to build the right cultural momentum on Day 1.”
Rice, 22, is coming off a national championship with UCLA. The 5-foot-11 guard averaged per-game bests in points (14.9), rebounds (5.9) and steals (1.5), through 38 games during the 2025-26 campaign.
On draft night, Toronto’s sixth-overall selection said she’d never been to Toronto. Since landing in the city, the Bethesda, Md., product has noticed the different types of stores and culture in Ontario’s capital, and has used her Canadian relatives to get situated in her new home.
“I had a long phone call with my aunt and uncle, my uncle is Canadian, and they lived here for a few years,” Rice said. “It was them telling me the lay of the land and figuring out the city, but so far it’s really great.”
The Tempo used its first-ever WNBA draft pick to take UCLA guard Kiki Rice sixth overall in last Monday's WNBA draft in New York.Pamela Smith/The Associated Press
Part of figuring things out will be trying Canadian staples such as all-dressed and ketchup-flavoured chips, something Nurse, 30, told her new teammates she’d introduce them to.
But one thing Rice, the rookie, and Nurse, the eight-year WNBA veteran, have in common is the unfamiliar feeling of playing for an expansion franchise.
“Everything is new, all the players are new, a lot of the staff members are new – some of them are new to the W,” Nurse said. “I think the energy was really fun, I think there’s a real excitement about building something special here, and I think there’s an understanding of what it means to be the only Canadian team in the country.
“But I think they’ll get more of a sense of it as stuff starts to happen.”
Representing an entire country isn’t lost on Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello, especially given how young girls in Toronto – and Canada – now have new role models to look up to.
“If you can see it, you can be it,” Brondello said.
In the meantime, Brondello’s focused on establishing a strong team culture.
“The first few days of training camp are about getting a feel of who they are, a lot of teaching as well, putting in our principles at play,” Brondello said, adding that’s she’s very happy with her team’s Day 1 results.
As the Tempo charge toward their home opener on May 8, Nurse said having basketball at the WNBA level in Canada is a testament to the women who came before her.
“The Tammy Sutton-Browns, the Stacey Dales, the Kim Gauchers, Shona Thorburn, Tamara Tatham, I could just go on and on – Natalie Achonwa,” Nurse said. “It’s continuing that legacy, and I hope that one day when people start to mention those names, that my name is also in there with it. I’m really appreciative of being a part of something that is so special.
“There have been a lot of firsts in my career, and I am very grateful for a lot of them, but this one might be the coolest.”