The Portland Fire, along with all ball knowers, are entering the Long Winter, when we must wait to hear about conversations behind closed doors that will decide the fate of the 2026 WNBA season. It seems about time for us to buy-in to the off-season, to enter hibernation mode, and to do some deeper and more distinct reading and learning. This is when we acquire real ball knowledge.
Staff Updates: Brittni Donaldson Hired as Assistant GM + Assistant Coach
In another move that foreshadows a blending of roles across the entire organization, the Fire have hired both a new assistant general manager who will also be an assistant coach. According to the Fire’s press release, Brittni Donaldson “will play a key cross-functional role intentionally designed to challenge the traditional staffing models and support a modern, development-driven expansion team. She will help build an innovation-driven basketball organization from the ground up by helping shape the team’s coaching methodologies, player development systems, analytics integration, and talent strategy.”
The paragraph that I loved to read was this one:
“Most recently, she served as Director of Basketball Development, Methodology & Integration for the Atlanta Hawks, where she oversaw the alignment of coaching, performance, analytics, and front-office departments around a unified player-development strategy – one of the most modern roles of its kind in the NBA. In that position, she led cross-departmental planning, introduced evidence-based training methodologies, including differential learning and constraints-led approaches, and integrated technologies to strengthen player progress tracking and decision-making.”
The Atlanta Hawks are emerging as a team with successfully developed talent from players that the organization drafted and developed in-house, which is a rare feat in basketball leagues these days. The Oklahoma City Thunder have done it, and have created the best team we’ve seen in the NBA in decades; the Indiana Pacers have done it, where the Fire’s now Head Coach Alex Sarama was hired to work towards that very goal. This feels like a massive competitive advantage in the WNBA, if the Fire can pull it off, as we continue to see franchises like the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings struggle to keep anyone happy or develop anyone beyond the talents they entered the league with.
Sylvia Fowles Hired as Assistant Coach
Uhh… this is crazy cool? A four-time Defensive Player of the Year and an MVP joining the coaching staff! Fowles is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and the Fire have earned the first shot at having her help lead a team from the sidelines. Fowles is immediately the most experienced WNBA voice in the entire organization, as far as I can tell, and has the highest level of playing experience that a person could have. This is wonderful.
Plus, she loves bikes and bike-riding communities. How did we get so lucky?
Head Coach Book Club
In an effort to
a.) learn more about the Fire’s first head coach Alex Sarama
b.) learn more about the systems that the head coach is going to put in place
c.) learn more about why the Fire might have made this hiring decision
I am going to read coach Sarama’s book Transforming Basketball: Changing How We Think About Basketball Performance. I am doing so alongside two friends who I look forward to talking to about the ideas within, which I can hopefully turn into a book club round-up discussion when we’re done.
I invite anyone interested to join us! Sarama seemingly self-published the book on Amazon, so it is only available for purchase there, for $27.99. There are other ways to get the book, so I’ll let you make the choice for yourself.
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This CBS Sports article talks a little about who Alex is coming into this role, and what players thought about him. I found this paragraph a nice little summary:
"Professor Alex," as the Cavaliers came to call him, helped Kenny Atkinson implement the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) in Cleveland. The teaching method, which is quickly gaining steam across the sports landscape, was a major factor in the Cavaliers' terrific regular season. They won 64 games – the second-most in franchise history – finished with the best offense in the league (121 offensive rating) and claimed the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Legal Consequences, and Options Available, in the WNBA CBA Negotiations
I appreciated reading the following articles early in the off-season, to help build a broader base of knowledge of our current negotiation world.
On the Clock: Legal Consequences of a WNBA Lockout
by Christian Conway
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is under fire, but the NBA is the real power worth challenging
By Lindsay Gibbs
I am also following Alexa Philippou on BlueSky (an alternative to the good days of Twitter when sports reporters commented on sports and no one else does anything weird, gross, or violent), and she has been the frontline reporter on WNBA negotiation news for ESPN. You can also follow her on Instagram.
Negotiation Updates
So far, we’ve only had delays and negotiation extensions, with little concrete information or evidence that the end is just around the corner. This might feel scary, and for some it certainly is, but I am currently operating under the expectation that the 2026 season will be delayed, or otherwise highly impacted by the timeline of these negotiations. Therefore, I don’t feel the need to write about every small update that reporters give us. You are welcome to keep up with those, which you can find on the major sports reporting platforms.
Blog Update
I have changed my newsletter writing platform, a move that shouldn’t affect you, the reader, at all. I wrote a longer explanation of this decision on my other publication, Something New, so you can read more about this change over there, if you’d like. In theory, you will continue getting these emails just like normal, though they may have a different design. Plenty of people have made this movie before me, so I should be able to avoid any/all common problems. Please let me know if anything seems amiss!
I’m glad to have you here, and I can’t wait for more material to chew on with you all.
Talk to you soon.