The last time the Portland Fire and Seattle Storm played a game of regular season basketball was Friday, August 9, 2002. At this point, the Fire was in crisis: the third-year team, which spawned Sylvia Crawley and Vanessa Nygaard among others, was a victim of a new ownership plan rolled out by the WNBA. The league decided team ownership should be transitioned to NBA affiliates or third-party groups, and despite the fact that the Fire were having their best season yet, there were no takers.
That may have been weighing on the minds of players that Friday 24 years ago, when the Storm ultimately defeated the Fire 83-74. This was in the internet’s earliest days, and if there’s any archival footage or a newspaper recap, it’s not easy to find.
So instead, readers will need to imagine the scenario. At the time, the Fire boasted Crawley, Tamicha Jackson, Jackie Stiles, and Tully Bevilaqua; the Storm had just drafted Sue Bird that season, and she was playing alongside Lauren Jackson. The latter duo had a 56-point game between them.
This year’s Fire is a different team — in fact, they’re different than they were last month, when the two teams played in the preseason and the Storm walked away with a 91-81 win at the Climate Pledge Arena. The Fire is still losing almost as much as they’re winning, but they’re rapidly adapting and adopting Alex Sarama’s Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) basketball, and they’re playing as a collective.
The Seattle Storm, who have held on to their spot in the WNBA since debuting in 2000, are also approaching the 2026 season with ferocity. The team’s No. 8 draft pick, Flau’jae Johnson, is averaging 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds (first among rookies), 2.5 assists, 1.0 blocks (first among rookies) and 0.8 steals in 26.7 minutes per game; she and their No. 2 pick, Awa Fam, are part of a long-term rebuild vision that also includes Dominique Malonga.
The WNBA was different — but also the same — in 2000
In 2000, there were 16 teams in the WNBA — one more than the league currently boasts now. While there were some differences in how the league functioned in the early 2000s and what we enjoy in 2026, the heart of the game was still very much the same.
The 2000 season also ushered in the inaugural seasons for the Indiana Fever, the Miami Sol, and the Storm. The American Basketball League (ABL) had declared bankruptcy the year before, which paved the way for a stronger WNBA. The Houston Comets, then helmed by Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, took home the WNBA Championship and posted a 98-24 overall record before their disbandment that year.
That’s also true of the Fire, Bevilaqua told reporters in Indianapolis on May 19, ahead of the Fever’s first match against Portland. Bevilaqua, who now works as a video associate and player development coach, said it was “disappointing” the Fire’s original berth was so short-lived.
“I mean, when it folded initially, you know, it was really disappointing, because the team was on a momentum uphill in terms of crowd attendance, record, that kind of thing,” she said. “So it was a real surprise, a real disappointment when we folded.”
“So to have it come back, it’s like we’re getting to finish that story,” Bevilaqua said. “We’re not finishing it, [we’re] restarting it, [which] gives us a chance to reconnect with the Portland Fire again, and it’s awesome. They’ve got huge following, and it just reminds me of the team from back in my day, they’re playing with the same integrity, fight.”
The original Fire was an expansion team, too, she added. “I mean, we’re all like the sixth, seventh players from rosters that have come together, and you can just see the way that they’re playing out there, that they’re playing with so much passion, so it’s exciting.”
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Fans are all in for their teams
The re-emergence of the Fire this season offered new possibilities for both the city and the team. Portland has embraced its WNBA squad, and the team has been pouring right back into the fans. In fact, the enthusiasm of fans has been one of the biggest, and best, surprises of this franchise’s return.
“I feel great about where we are, great about where the team is, great about the experience fans are getting in the arena,” Fire interim president Clare Hamill told The IX Basketball. “You know, we’re getting some wins, which is great, and I think the chance to have a rivalry and have some fun together is just one more piece of the puzzle for fans.”
Those fans have made quite the impression, she added.
“I think just sitting there, even at the … Dallas game on Saturday, just that … just the sort of raw energy, I mean, fans are just like leaping in the air, right?” Hamill added of the thousands of people who fill the Fire Pit each home game. “[They’re] so excited every good play, so loud, staying around afterwards, the handing out roses to the players. I knew the fan part of this would be great, [but] I didn’t even realize how great it would be.”
“It’s beyond what I thought. I think the fans are falling in love with the players, the fans are loving the experience in the arena, and they stay around and cheer for the players, win, win or lose, and I think that’s all you can ask for from an expansion team, from the fans,” she also said.
Though they might not be new to the league and are having a rebuilding season, the Storm’s fans still show up game after game. In fact, said Will Gulley, the Storm’s CMO, those fans are completely behind their team no matter what.
“I am biased, of course, but the Storm fans are absolutely the best fans in the WNBA,” he told The IX Basketball . “The fan base is super — [there are] a couple of things I’ll say. One, they are they’re 100% behind the organization from start to finish, meaning everything on the court, to all the activities that we do in the arena when the game’s not being played, to outside the arena, when we have Fan Fest, and all those things … they are with us, and they’re all about having fun in those times.”
That support is something that’s tangible for the players and the entire organization. “And because they’re so with us, it impacts the game, and how our players play, and how they feel, and so they’re with us, too,” Gulley continued. “They’re super knowledgeable about basketball … the more that they understand the game, the more they understand when to be hot, when to be loud, when to be quiet … when to really engage, they understand when momentum is on our side and how they can impact that momentum, and they are in it.”
Preseason might not translate to the present
The Fire’s preseason loss to the Storm likely won’t weigh too much on the team as they head into their Wednesday game. “I think we we showed a lot of great things against Seattle, but it was not first game, so of course it was a little bit hard to find like great connection,” Fire guard Carla Leite told reporters of that loss back in May. “So, we had to practice more, and I think we will show more things, more stuff.”
For the Storm, the way the Fire pushed back during that first game was a great example of what makes basketball so fun in the first place.
“I think that’s what, you know, basketball is about,” Johnson told reporters after the game. “You know … it kind of defines the activity. It kind of takes away from the seriousness of the game, saying [that] because, of course, you want to win, but it’s just like, how you doing it? What’s your energy when you’re doing it?”
“And I think, for me, I think energy is great for my game. When I’m having fun, I’m playing my best basketball, even if the ball not going in the hoop,” she added.
If there is one thing fans of both teams can look forward to Wednesday night, it’s energy. “I think, obviously, one of the things we want to do, and I think this is probably the tone we’re going to try to set, both on our side and I think on Seattle side as well, is just that we just want to celebrate just the amazing fandom of the Pacific Northwest,” Hamill said.
“We’ve got two teams in the Pacific Northwest now, amazing fans, and you know, I think it’s going to just make WNBA basketball even stronger, even more exciting for fans,” she also said.
Gulley agreed. “We’re going down and back from Portland, up here. Portland’s a three hour drive from Seattle, and we are expecting a significant amount of our fan base to go down to Portland and really show the fans down on in that area just what we’re all about,” he said. “We take our game seriously. We take our fandom seriously. The Seattle Storm fans do, and we also are like really good people, and we want to shoot. We’re passionate, and we want Portland to succeed. We want the fan base to feel like they’re welcome when they come up here, and similarly, we hope we know that Portland fans are going to welcome us down there too.”
Having the opportunity to play a newly revived Fire is a sign of a league that’s in a good place, he said. “The league expanding is a good thing for everybody. It’s an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves into new markets. Obviously, this year we’ve been up to Toronto twice and have had a good experience up there. We’re going to go to Portland twice this year and anticipate and have a good experience there. And then, as the league continues to grow with the other cities, like we anticipate being able to showcase the best of the Seattle Storm and what we’re about into those cities.”
Luckily, there will be plenty of times to see the two teams do exactly that. After the June 17 match, the Storm will play host on July 4, and the two teams will meet in Portland once again on August 8 before they close out the 2026 rivalry series in Seattle on August 14.
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