Prospects of professional women’s basketball coming to Toronto just got a big boost from two prominent figures: Drake and Nick Nurse.
After the rap icon and Toronto Raptors ambassador posted on Instagram Wednesday morning to tell the WNBA he needs a women’s team in the city, Nurse was asked about the idea.
.@Drake wants to see a @WNBA team in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/pJOcinCDqe
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 3, 2021
It’s safe to say the Raptors head coach would welcome sharing the spotlight with a women’s professional team during what he calls a “golden age” for basketball in Canada.
“I think it’d be great, I think Toronto should have a team, right?” said Nurse in a press conference Wednesday ahead of a game against the Washington Wizards. “I think women should be represented in Toronto with a WNBA team, I would imagine it would be wildly successful, wildly successful.
“So go Drake.”
The WNBA currently has 12 teams, all based in the United States — it last expanded in 2009 with the Atlanta Dream. The league reached a peak of 16 teams between 2000 and 2002 before several teams folded.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in October that expansion could be on the horizon, though.
“I suspect by next summer or this time next year, in our 26th season, we’ll be talking about the number of teams and a list of where [new franchises might land],” said Engelbert in an interview with ESPN.
Toronto is the largest city in Canada or the United States without a team.
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