Isabelle Harrison, a veteran post player who joined the Toronto Tempo expansion franchise prior to the 2026 WNBA season, has spent this season growing in two types of confidence: confidence in herself and confidence from others.
Harrison is having a career year with the Tempo, averaging more points and rebounds than she has in her first nine years in the league. With 12.4 points and 6.5 rebounds in an average of 23.5 minutes a game, Harrison has become a critical part of the Tempo’s inaugural squad.
“Izzy Harrison’s having her best year,” head coach Sandy Brondello told reporters. “She’s playing with confidence, and sometimes that’s all players need.”
But Harrison’s start to the year wasn’t laden in thoughts of the potential she could bring. A training camp injury put her out for 10 games, and when she returned to a team in need of more post presence, the expectations were placed on her right away.
“She just made the most of her opportunity. … I put confidence in my players as much as we can but in the end, she has to do the work,” Brondello said.
By signing to an expansion team as a free agent, Harrison was ready to seize an unknown opportunity. In Toronto, she would likely play a larger role than she had in previous years, and Brondello confirmed that leadership was something the team expected of her early.
“She’s hardworking, but she speaks up and plays in the right way,” Brondello said. “But this team, it’s like, okay, well, ‘I’m one of the veterans, so I need to speak up a little bit.’ And we gave her a leadership role early, and I think she’s a natural-born leader.”
The last few years have been bumpy for Harrison who has suffered injuries and missed significant time as she’s bounced between markets. For her, this season looks different because of the belief Brondello has in her game.
“I’ve been waiting for a minute, so Sandy plucked me, and I played,” Harrison told The IX Sports, before going into what it means to have Brondello in her corner.
“I think she always knew I could do this, and I also know she’s been waiting. She knows I’ve been waiting on my moment.”
But waiting isn’t all Harrison has been doing, her preparations for this new role started in the offseason with hard work, long before she knew she’d end up playing internationally in the WNBA.
“I was very intentional in the offseason. I had some bumps in the road, but I just was really clear of what I wanted for myself, and obviously the 3-pointer was something that I know I wanted to consistently add to my game — so just a lot of shooting, a lot of shooting,” Harris told The IX Sports.
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The extra effort paid off. Harrison has shot 18-for-62 from the 3-point line this season, good for 29% 3-point shooting on the year. Those numbers are career highs (across years when she attempted five or more threes) for the 32-year-old. Previous to the 2024 season, Harrison didn’t take many 3-point attempts — in her first six years of playing she only had 14 attempts. She has taken almost 3.5 times more threes this year than any other single year, and still has four games left in the season.
Across the entire Tempo offense, shots from the arc have been a staple. Not only does Toronto have one of the best range shooters in the game in Marina Mabrey, and a couple more like Julie Allemand, Kia Nurse and Brittney Sykes who can also shoot from deep, but this group forged their chemistry at the beginning of the season when they were without true post players and had to rely on larger guards to step up in new roles. The first offense this expansion team produced included 3-pointers from most players on the court, and when Harrison was back and healthy she kept to the same tune.
Brondello also commented on the impact Harrison has had closer to the net, specifically her pick and rolls, short rolls and then her finishing at the rim.
The expansion environment has been a catalyst for most of the players on the Tempo’s roster. Sykes, Mabrey and Sabally all join Harrison as Tempo veterans who have achieved single-game scoring career highs this season. Allemand, the team’s defacto floor general has also improved the most predominant part of her game — assists — with a single-game career high of 14 this season.
Across the board, new levels of success are being unlocked through unexpected opportunities, sharing the ball through necessity and, of course, confidence.
“When teams have players that can all contribute, where you don’t have coaches demanding it to go to certain players, the ball moves freely, you get more confidence, you play together. That’s what I’ve always seen in the W. You have your main players, but you want your others, the rest of the bench is just as important,” Harrison said.
“I’m glad that we have that type of roster. “
In some ways, Harrison sees the non-scoreboard wins of this inaugural Tempo season being overshadowed by the injury struggles and numerous issues over the second half of the season. Even so, she and coach try their best to prevent those feelings and realities from getting them down.
“It’s more so just getting through the day and just staying positive and staying optimistic, which [Brondello] does,” Harrison said. “We both do a good job at that.”
