10 OUT OF 13 PORTLAND FIRE PLAYERS ARE WHITE.
In a league where 70% of the players are black..the Portland Fire is different. They have a roster where 77% of their players are white.
The roster consists of 13 players. Carla Leite, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Bridget Carleton, Teja Oblak, Luisa Geiselsoder, Megan Gustafson, Frieda Buhner, Louisville's Emily Engstler, Karlie Samuelson and Holly Winterburn are the white girls. Sarah Williams, Nyadiew Puoch and Jordan Harrison the black girls.
The Fire are 6-8 on the young season and have lost their last four games. They play in the western conference of the WNBA is a city that is 11 to 1 white to black ratio.
They re-joined the WNBA in 2026. On the roster, there are five players from foreign countries.... Germany with two, France, Australia and Slovenia. The colleges represented are Iowa, Iowa State, Alabama, Stanford, UConn, West Virginia, Oregon and Louisville.
This was a team that folded in 2002, after the Portland Trail Blazers refused to buy the franchise. The original Fire existed from 2000-2002. They have drawn over 19,000 attendees twice this season. You could say the Fire is raging again in Portland...(sorry, bad pun).
Emily Engstler has become a huge fan favorite in Portland. She leads the WNBA in blocked shots. After three WNBA teams in four years, you had to wonder if her book was about to be closed on being in the WNBA...but she has roared back this season with a ferocity that is so good to see.
Head coach Alex Samama of the Fire calls her the cornerstone of the team's defensive identity. He praises her identity to block shots, force turnovers and be a vocal leader on the squad.
This is so good to see for Engstler. She had begun to develop the tag of a "wanderer". From Syracuse to Louisville in college . Then...from the Indiana Fever to the Minnesota Lynx to the Washington Mystics to Portland this year.
Let's hope she has found a home at last...with a salary of $277,500 this season, She is only on a one-year contract, however...on a team that has huge earners in Bridget Carleton, Megan Gustafson and Luisa Geiselsoder. Engstler is only the seventh highest paid player on the squad.
Someone in Portland needs to wake up and open up the checkbook...right?
paulie
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