With social media misstep, Portland’s WNBA team causes confusion over potential coaching hire

Portland’s WNBA expansion franchise inadvertently teased their selection of a new head coach on Tuesday morning, posting an image to LinkedIn of Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama that read, “Welcome to the Portland Fire!”

Then, the Fire quickly deleted the post.

But not before it made the rounds on other social media platforms and gained significant traction on Reddit.

A team spokesperson for the Fire acknowledged the post had been sent in error, but insisted the team has not hired a head coach and do not have a signed contract.

The flub becomes the latest in a series of missteps by the Fire as they attempt to get off the ground before playing their inaugural season next spring.

But what gives with the coach?

Will Sarama be leading the expansion team in its inaugural season, starting next spring? Or will he not?

The apparent LinkedIn leak came as Fire officials had worked to prepare local media for an announcement, going as far as to say they should plan for a Thursday press conference. Team sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Sarama was the choice.

However, sources have since indicated that those talks have hit a snag, separate from the premature LinkedIn post. It is no longer clear whether Sarama will join the Fire or if he will remain with the Cavaliers.

A spokesperson for the Cleveland Cavaliers said he was unaware of anything happening between Sarama and the Fire. Sarama was on the bench for the Cavs’ preseason game against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday evening.

Sarama joined the Cavs last year as director of player development, helping the Cavs win 64 games and earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Head coach Kenny Atkinson was named the NBA’s coach of the year.

This summer, Atkinson elevated Sarama to become an assistant coach.

Sarama is a considered a pioneer in the training method CLA — constraints-led approach — which has been embraced by NBA stars including Victor Wembanyama. Los Angeles Sparks’ star Kelsey Plum told The Athletic it changed her career.

While hiring a British coach known for an unorthodox, but growing, training method would register as an outside-the-box hire for the Fire, there is a logical connection.

Before Atkinson, a CLA convert, hired him, Sarama spent the previous year as an assistant coach with the Rip City Remix, the G League affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers.

At two previous stops, Sarama also worked with the Fire’s recently hired general manager, Vanja Cernivec. They were colleagues with the NBA’s global operation in Madrid starting in 2015 and later, when she was the GM of the professional men’s basketball London Lions, she hired Sarama as that club’s director of methodology.

The social media misstep is just the most recent time Fire executives have found themselves with egg on their face. Tuesday’s post had echoes off the soft launch of the team’s brand identity, which was made public after a reporter spotted that the team had registered the name “Fire” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In addition to being unable to announce either its name or its head coach on its own terms, the Fire’s very first hire, team president Inky Son, was ousted after three months on the job. And her replacement, the respected Clare Hamill, still carries the interim tag despite getting the team’s logo tattooed on her forearm.

That’s not to say nothing of the unsuccessful pursuit of the Portland Trail Blazers by Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, the sibling co-founders of RAJ Sports which owns the Fire and Portland Thorns, which led them to the brink of a court battle with the founders of Panda Express before backing off on Monday.