For the last time, the Toronto Tempo took the court during their inaugural season. It was an emotional game, the Connecticut Sun’s last ever as the franchise prepares to move to Houston. It felt like the beginning of one story colliding with the end of another – two legacies at opposite ends of being written.
It was also a straight-up tank battle.
With a win from the Sun, which they took care of 95-81, the Tempo tie them (well, the Houston Comets, technically) for the top odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. Each team will go into the lottery with a 29.5% chance of drawing the first pick in next April’s draft.
For this Tempo team though, this game signifies the end of a tough season filled with adversity amid the celebration.
“We faced so much adversity, I’ve never experienced it like this,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game wrapped up. “These players still came to work and did their best. I just appreciate them for just continuing to show up and be good human beings.”
Toronto did not have a single game the entire season with a clean injury report, as they battled through everything from unlucky bumps and bruises to season ending recoveries.
“Now it’s remembering we don’t want to go through this s--- again, you know?” Brondello said about lessons to take into next season. “We learn, and then we focus on being better. We certainly don’t want to go through this experience again, but we embraced hard as well as we could have expected of anybody.”
Despite the adversity faced with the injuries and the roster inconsistency, the Tempo still had a lot to celebrate even excluding all the firsts for the franchise.
Marina Mabrey, Brittney Sykes, and Isabelle Harrison had career-best seasons. Kiki Rice and Laura Juskaite impressed as rookies with bright futures. The Tempo had their first All-Star player, broke the single-game regular season attendance record in Montreal, and Mabrey tied the single-game scoring record with 53 points. There is a lot to look forward to for those on the roster that will return next season.
“I think we all grew, and we’ll take that and apply it for just moving forward,” Harrison said. “I’m just I’m proud of us. We could have folded a long time ago, but we really played hard.”
Even though the Tempo lost the game, Kiki Rice scored a career-high 28 points in her last game as a rookie. She’s made a case for a place on the All-Rookie team even after missing a chunk of the season due to an ankle sprain.
“Surely if she’s not on the All-Rookie team, something’s wrong with that,” Brondello said of Rice. “We pour a lot into her. When all the other players are going out, all the attention’s on her.”
Rice finished her rookie campaign averaging 13.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
“I think obviously the season didn’t go exactly how we wanted it to go, but at the end of the day, you have to continue to build,” Rice said as she wrapped up her rookie campaign. “I had a good amount of opportunity to learn and get reps. It’s all about building the right foundation for next year.”
The Tempo will hold end of season interviews with players and staff on Saturday as they prepare to head into a busy offseason. On top of being big players in the WNBA Draft Lottery, the team will have a real free agency period and the opportunity to tweak their roster heading into their second year.
After the delayed negotiations between the players and league earlier in the year, the Tempo had to build their entire team in three weeks’ time. This time around, they’ll have a lot more room to make choices, talk to players, and build their roster going into training camp. The league will add an additional six games to the regular season next year, and the Tempo will not have to go through another expansion draft.
With the ‘firsts’ behind them, the Toronto Tempo are ready to write the next chapter of their legacy.
