While the Warriors may miss Klay Thompson, he’s enjoying his summer with the Mavericks. The expansion of the NBA and WNBA is now trending on social media, where he is mostly passing his time on holiday.
Because Thompson cares about this issue as much as everyone else, he wasted no time expressing his excitement at the prospect of women’s basketball coming to Portland.
There’s a new WNBA team coming to Portland, and Klay Thompson is pretty excited about it since he grew up in Oregon. The Mavericks star took to Instagram to share his feelings, reposting the announcement from Portland Thorns FC.
His caption read, “This is so cool; Jackie Stiles was really HER back in the day. ABSOLUTELY CLIP!” Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal will lead the new team, and they’ll be playing at Moda Center.
Klay Thompson also gave a nod to former Portland Fire player Jackie Stiles, remembering her influence before the team wrapped up in 2002.
Who is Jackie Stiles, Klay Thompson’s shoutout in his IG story?
The Portland Fire was a WNBA team that Jackie Stiles played for over twenty years ago. The Fire selected her as the No. 4 overall pick in the 2000 WNBA draft. She became popular quickly and won the Rookie of the Year award.
Sadly, the team had to stop playing in 2002 because of financial issues. Now, with a new team coming back, Stiles is very excited about the growing interest in basketball.
In an email to Bill Oram of The Oregonian, she said, “I’m thrilled about the news of Portland getting a WNBA expansion team. It’s fantastic to see women’s basketball thriving.”
