It had been six years since Kayla Alexander suited up for a WNBA game. Yet, when a Toronto Tempo team in need of post depth and all-around veteran leadership called her up on a seven-day hardship contract, she didn’t hesitate.
Six years ago, the WNBA was the opposite of an international phenomenon. Instead of charting its way into a new country, it was focused on centralizing operations as much as possible during a pandemic. Thoughts of Canadian expansion surely didn’t penetrate that bubble. Playing in the best league in the world and repping a team just an hour from her hometown wasn’t something Alexander dared to try and fathom.
So, when Alexander stood in front of the Tempo step and repeat backdrop at one of the most iconic sporting venues in Canada, fielding questions from media and readying to take the court for Canada’s team in Montreal, she still had a hard time taking it all in.
“Surreal — like this is a dream,” Alexander said. “Just the fact that there’s a team here now in Toronto, and I have the opportunity to play and be a part of it. It’s just dream come true. I’m just in shock right now. I’m just trying to process everything. I’m just grateful for this opportunity.”
It wasn’t as if Alexander had been called on for a throwaway game where she’d see next to no minutes. The 35-year-old didn’t just see 10 minutes of meaningful play in the loss, she also saw women’s sports history being made in her country. With 20,996 fans in attendance, the Bell Centre set a new regular season attendance record.
“I think young Kayla, like Kayla from like 2019 — I don’t think she would have believed that we would be here today. She would be flabbergasted,” Alexander said.
Alexander from 2019 wasn’t thinking about morning shootaround and a WNBA game in Quebec, but she was dreaming. She just didn’t know how far those dreams would take her quite yet.
In 2019, Alexander published a children’s book titled The Magic of Basketball illustrated and written by her. This short rhyming book tells young players of the many gifts basketball can provide. It focuses on the importance of working hard and following your dreams, before finishing with a few blank pages where readers are encouraged to note down their own aspirations.
In an interview Alexander had with The IX Sports’ Howard Megdal the week before her book release, she shared about some of the dreams she might fill those back pages with. Her main goal — which she accomplished at Tokyo 2020 — was to become an Olympian and compete for Canada at the Olympics. Alexander wanted to find a way to represent her country at the highest level, something she did in Japan five years ago with a maple leaf on her chest, but also something she did just a few weeks ago while sporting the bourdeaux and borealis blue of Canada’s team in Montreal.
“I’m so happy that all the young girls coming up in Toronto will never know a Toronto without a women’s professional basketball team,” Alexander said. “Like I grew up with that without knowing, and I was having to leave my country to play professionally. So the fact that that’s here now, this is an option for young girls. I think it just makes it be more realistic and more like it’s right there for them to touch.”
Alexander was an important call up for the Tempo, and not just because of proximity — although her citizenship north of the border did mean the team didn’t get stuck with piles of visa paperwork. She was added to the team primarily for the size and steadiness head coach Sandy Brondello knew she could bring.
“She’s an experienced player. She’s been in the league for so long,” Brondello said. “She’s had very successful overseas career, and I’ve coached a lot against Kayla with the national team, and recently in Turkey in March we had the World Cup qualifiers. That was our last game, and she was one of their best players and a very hard guard.”
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Alexander was drafted by the San Antonio Stars with the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft and she remained playing with the team until 2017. From there, she had a season each with the Indiana Fever, Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx.
Isabelle Harrison, one of the Tempo’s core veteran post players, remembers the 2017 season with the Stars well.
“A long, long time ago, me and Kayla were on the same team in San Antonio,” Harrison said. “I just know she’s just a not too high, not too low player. She does her job, she rebounds, and we need that steadiness. So, I’m really happy that Kay is here. We’re back together, and I think she did really well for her one day of preparation. She got thrown out there, and she handled herself, and I wasn’t surprised.”
In Alexander’s first game with the Tempo she had a point and two rebounds over 10 minutes against the Wings. On July 14, she suited up again, this time back in Toronto at the Tempo’s main home base. In this outing, she recorded 2 points, three rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block over 13 minutes in a loss to the Mystics.
Although the 6’4 center is still figuring things out with her new team, she can find some solace in one uber familiar face: Kia Nurse. The two grew up together in Canada’s basketball system and were teammates in Tokyo.
And on July 10, the pair took the court together about an hour before tip off in Montreal. It was just the two of them warming up at the net, opposite each other on the short corner. It was a perfect moment symbolizing how far basketball has come in Canada. Two icons preparing for a game that wouldn’t just make Canadian history as the first WNBA game in Montreal, but that would go as far as to make league history too.
A few minutes after she finished her warm up, Alexander tried to explain what it had been like to prepare for the game beside Nurse.
“Surreal. I don’t — surreal. No way to plan for this, so just trying to soak in the moment, just be present, and just do what I can to contribute to the team.”
