Canada's Nurse says 'more money is coming' after opting for 1-year deal with Chicago Sky

Newly signed Chicago Sky guard Kia Nurse chose her free-agency destination carefully.

Currently in Nashville, Tenn., for her first Athletes Unlimited basketball season, Nurse tapped into the experience of the 39 players around her to help assess whether Chicago would be a good fit. This was in addition to the regular team meetings that take place around free agency.

When it came time to decide on a contract length, with the WNBA collective bargaining agreement set to expire at season's end just before a $2.2 billion US media deal kicks in, Nurse made an easy choice and signed a one-year deal.

"At the end of the day, more money is coming," said Nurse, who agreed to terms with Chicago last week. "So I was taking that one-year deal because more money is coming, and we deserve to get paid and we are going to get paid. Period."

Nurse, 28, from Hamilton, Ont., plans to have a strong season with the Sky and parlay it into a potential payday when she hits free agency next winter — the same time the expansion Toronto Tempo can sign their first free agents.

She sidestepped questions about the possibility of playing for the Tempo.

For the next four weeks, Nurse will be the lone Canadian competing in Athletes Unlimited, a league founded in 2020 initially as a women's softball league before expanding into basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse. Its 24-game basketball season features weekly team changes and crowns a season-long individual champion.

Nurse's participation comes amid strained relations between the U.S. and Canada, sparked by tariffs imposed on Canadian goods by U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, later paused on Monday. In response, fans in several Canadian cities, including at Sunday's Toronto Raptors-Los Angeles