Former Portland Fire star is ‘thrilled’ about Portland’s new WNBA franchise

The WNBA awarded a new franchise to Portland on Wednesday, bringing back memories for a star player with the previous WNBA franchise based in the city.

Jackie Stiles was a member of the short-lived Portland Fire when the team was a member of the WNBA more than 20 years ago. Stiles said she’s looking forward to the new franchise amid a sharp rise in popularity of the league this year.

“I’m thrilled about the news of Portland getting a WNBA expansion team,” Stiles said in an e-mail to Bill Oram of The Oregonian. “It’s fantastic to see women’s basketball thriving.”

Stiles was the No. 4 overall pick by the Fire in the 2000 WNBA draft after a record-setting college career at Southwest Missouri State. Stiles averaged 14.9 points per game while shooting 40.5% from the floor and 43.1% percent from the 3-point line during her rookie season. She was named to the WNBA All-Star team and selected as the league’s Rookie of the Year. Her next season was cut short due to injuries and she spent just two seasons in Portland. Numerous injuries eventually derailed her career.

Stiles, who now runs basketball camps and operates a fitness studio in Missouri, recalled a particular funny story during a road trip as a member of the Fire.

“We tried to save our $100 daily travel per diem by eating cheaply. I wasn’t hungry right after the game, but later on, I started to feel it. I went looking for our trainer to grab some protein bars, and a couple of my teammates, who were getting treatment, mentioned they were hungry, too,” Stiles wrote. “None of us wanted to splurge on the Ritz-Carlton room service, but we had spotted a Wendy’s nearby and decided to hit the drive-thru. We asked the concierge to call us a cab, but what we didn’t realize was that the Ritz doesn’t call cabs – they call limos! So we ended taking a limo to Wendy’s to order off the 99-cent menu.

“The driver was like is this the only place you ladies want to go? By the time we factored in the limo, room service would have been cheaper! We still laugh about it to this day.”