While Toronto Tempo are new to WNBA, women's basketball has long history in Canada

The WNBA, not surprisingly, chose Canada as the country to extend its footprint outside of the U.S. for the first time.

But while the league will have a new franchise in the country with the expansion Toronto Tempo making their debut this season, Canada has been sending a pipeline of players to the U.S. for more than three decades.

Kelly Boucher was the first Canadian player to compete in the league, playing a season with the Charlotte Sting in 1998. Stacey Dales was the highest draft pick of a Canadian, going third in 2002 to the Washington Mystics.

"I think back to when I was growing up the WNBA wasn't even on TV in Canada when I was growing up," said Portland's Bridget Carleton, who is Canadian. "So, to have a team in Toronto, in our country, is just surreal. The young kids are really excited for it, to have access to that and just women's sports being more visible, so it's exciting."

It appeared to be only a matter of time. There were nearly 150 Canadians on Division 1 college rosters this past season, including South Carolina's Agot Makeer, a breakout star in the NCAA Tournament.

Three Canadians were selected in the WNBA draft this year, second to the 2016 draft when four were chosen. This was the fourth consecutive year that a Canadian player was chosen in the draft.

Kia Nurse has seen what the NBA's Toronto Raptors have done in the growth of men's basketball in Canada and believes the Tempo can do the same on the women's side.

"We can now field an Olympic men's team with just NBA players and in the next 10-15 years of the Tempo being in Canada,” Nurse said, "we'll be able to field a women's national team in Canada with WNBA players."

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