With winning top of mind, WNBA’s Tempo finally arrive at expansion draft

If it wasn’t already clear, the Toronto Tempo’s latest addition makes their Year 1 intentions plain and obvious.

As Masai Ujiri, announced Tuesday as principal owner of the WNBA team, once said, the Tempo plan is to win — and win in Toronto.

It is not the normal trepidation with which expansion teams enter pro sports. There is little talk of taking things slow or far-off title aspirations.

Not with Ujiri, who brought championship basketball to Canada in 2019 as president of the Toronto Raptors.

Not with co-owner Serena Williams, winner of the most Grand Slam women’s singles titles in the Open Era.

Not with head coach Sandy Brondello, a two-time WNBA champion who had her pick of multiple open bench positions across the league and chose a team without a single game played.

And certainly not with the player-addition opportunities lying ahead in the next two weeks, beginning with Friday’s expansion draft at 3:30 p.m. ET.

“I think this is just a little different situation, obviously,” Brondello said in her first remarks upon being named head coach in November. “A lot of the players now are free agents. Yes, we'll be an expansion team, but hopefully summer in Toronto is pretty special here. So hopefully we can get some pretty special players to represent the Tempo.”

The Tempo will have the second pick of the expansion draft after they won a coin toss and chose instead to pick sixth overall in the college draft, set for April 13. The Portland Fire, also new to the league, will pick first in the former and seventh in the latter.

For the expansion draft, the teams will alternate choices over 12 picks, then do so for another round of 12 picks in which the Tempo are first up. There is no requirement that each team take the full