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Alex Sarama will reportedly be the Portland Fire’s first head coach in franchise history going into their inaugural WNBA season, but that knowledge became public earlier than the team intended.
Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports reported Tuesday that Portland “mistakenly shared” the news that Sarama would be the head coach on its LinkedIn page before deleting it.
Costabile then spoke to multiple sources who confirmed the plan is to make an official announcement after a contract is finalized.
This is not the first time something like this has happened, as Costabile noted the Fire team name was prematurely leaked in trademark files in June.
Portland is set to start play next season as an expansion franchise during a period of growth for the WNBA. The Golden State Valkyries were an expansion franchise in 2025, and the Toronto Tempo will also start in 2026.
What’s more, there will be a Cleveland team in 2028, a Detroit team in 2029 and a Philadelphia team in 2030.
Portland went with someone who is familiar with what it takes to find success as an expansion franchise when it hired Vanja Černivec as general manager in August. Černivec was the vice president of basketball operations for the Valkyries during their inaugural season and helped lead them to the playoffs.
Černivec is also familiar with Sarama, who was the director of methodology for the London Lions of the British Basketball League when the former was the general manager.
Sarama also has experience with Portland basketball seeing how he was previously an assistant coach and director of player development for the G League’s Rip City Remix. The Remix are the Portland Trail Blazers’ G League affiliate.
He was also most recently an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers and helped the team finish with the best record in the Eastern Conference last season at 64-18.
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