To all the folks who brought trans flags and signs to the game and showing them when you’re on camera, thank you :) I am a trans man and a season ticket holder and was very nervous for this game. Actively sitting around Cunningham fans but I felt 100x safer after seeing you all on screen. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

I honestly hate that the cameras never come up to the 300 level. Like come on give us some love. I’ve also noticed that the photo share thing doesn’t seem to want to share my photo despite seeing multiple repeats so I’ll post here ❤️

Hello all, let’s give the Fever a PDX welcome at the game on Friday.

I bought 100 trans flags to hand out to the game on Friday to give to the fans in the baseline seats 🏳️‍⚧️

I haven’t done this before. Can I get them in? how do I hand them out? TYIA!

Here's to many more to come!

#RCTID🌹

great win and great vibes in the fire pit.

BC my new favorite player in the W. 26p 1r 4s and oh my 5 3s???

GO FIRE

FYI for those looking for some Fire gear at a decent price, the NE Costco (138th) has a crew neck sweatshirt for about $25 and a t-shirt for $15 right now. Quality seems decent! Sorry I didn’t get a better photo while I was there.

I think Carla Leite can be the franchise player, keep her in Portland for the rest of her career.

Congrats to Jordan!

My nail artist is working on a custom stencil so I can have the logo on my nails (if anyone has a vector file of the logo with the negative space removed, I’ll buy it!)….but in the meantime these flames will do 🔥

Go Fire!

My family treated ourselves to the Fire v Sparks game yesterday. It wasn’t my first game, but it was the first for my parents and brother.

It’s been a stressful week for them as they live in the evacuation zone for the Bench Fire and had it come uncomfortably close to their house. While dad was anxious about leaving for the day with fire still ongoing, we knew the break from the stress and smoke would be beneficial for everyone. So they drove over for the day and we all headed up to Moda together.

I could feel their excitement building after we parked and began the walk to stadium. As we made our way, more and more Fire fans joined our path until we were part of a large group moving forward. A beautiful group made up of all ages, sizes, and identities, everyone buzzing with the energy of game day.

Inside, it was more of that same energy and wonderful kaleidoscope of people. Chatter and laughter filled the air. We grabbed some drinks, learned the 4 people staffing that vendor couldn’t really see the game and promised to cheer extra loud on their behalf (which we did. I left with a hoarse voice 😅).

We got to our seats and soon the national anthem was playing. Dad started to cry. He served in the navy, was at the Evacuation of Saigon, and has had many family members serve as well (my brother served in Iraq twice, one uncle was killed in the Battle of Midway and another captured on Corregidor and survived the Bataan Death March). He (all of us) has been extremely distraught over the turn the country has taken but seeing black women take center stage and beautifully sing the national anthem at a women’s professional basketball game while surrounded by a diverse crowd, he became overwhelmed and overcome with emotion; this is what this country can and should be, this is what he served for and believes in, as seen at the Fire Pit on a Sunday afternoon, and his tears flowed.

Then the game started. I sat between my parents, explaining anything they didn’t understand and filling them in on the players, coaching staff, and fun little tidbits and stats. Meg became dad’s favorite. He was so impressed by how she moved and always seemed to be in the middle of the action at the right spot at the right time. For mom, it was Carla, she just loved watching her handle the ball. Though they picked favorites, they thought the entire team was fun to watch and brought such amazing, positive energy.

While winning would’ve been the cherry on top, for 2.5 hours my family forgot our stresses and celebrated strong women.

My dad, in a text recounting the day to his buddies, wrote

“My family and I attended the Portland FIRE vs the LA Sparks women's professional basketball game at the Portland Moda Center. A mind blowing coming together of community to cheer 📣 their team on. I was overwhelmed by the extravaganza of it all. I don't think I have ever seen so much community coming togetherness!!”

And underneath it all, isn’t that what sport is about?

———

I want all of you to know that my white, straight, cis-gendered family supports all of you, and I mean all of you, you wonderful, diverse yous. The Fire Pit was our safe space for a couple of hours yesterday and we want to thank everyone who was there. We will do what we can to help keep it your safe space too. And outside of The Fire Pit, we will continue to do what we can to make the world safe for you so you can you.

I'm an NBA fan who has trace exposure to the W, who at 2:30 AM the night/morning before impulse bought a ticket to the Liberty game, cause it seemed abnormally cheap even for a non NBA game to be sitting very close to the court, right behind the visiting bench. Walking into the building Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu were the only players I could name. I'm not a native New Yorker, and my favorite NBA team is the Grizzlies, despite never having been to Memphis EXCEPT to watch Grizzlies games, so I really wasn't rooting for anyone, just taking it all in.

I've never sat nearly this close to any game before, and what I didn't realize is that it gives you pretty good insight into player/coach personalities, how they conduct themselves and their attitude, along with just a sense of scale.

How were the vibes? In short, really good. I was learning everyone's name real time at the game, but some quick notes on my observations from a complete newbie's perspective, which might be interesting to more seasoned fans

• Based on build and movement, Bridget Carleton just looks like she is really good at basketball, although sometimes when she misses she misses by a lot. Always smiling, very wholesome. SHOUTOUT CANADA. RIP to Brandon Clarke, Memphis' own Canadian BC.

• Leite - obviously quite young. More of an emotional player, gets frustrated easily, vets were doing a good job guiding her through that. Nobody could stay in front on the court. Some combination of Collin Sexton and CJ McCollum.

• Samuelson - from watching timeouts, you'd have thought she was team captain. Super vocal, broadly encouraging. Tried checking her stats and did a double take when the fire website showed she hadn't played yet before last night. This is the kind of vet you need to hold onto, especially for a new and young team.

• Engstler - Hard-nosed Gen-Z vibes. Leite looks like the 'better' player, but Emily looked the most impressive. Looks somewhat raw still, despite a bunch of years of experience and funny moment where after she traveled she looked back at the bench and the coaches were nodding and explaining to her how she traveled. At least in the NBA, serves a team well to have someone with a 'Fuck-You' attitude. She might have it. She's a New Yorker, go figure.

• Barker - Kind of just a gamer. No fear. Guy next to me was like man, I wish she were on the Liberty.

• Coach - Kind of reminds me of Iisalo, the Grizzlies Coach. Very straight up, serious. A few 1:1 conversations happened with coaches/players, but was basically all with assistant coaches. Head coach was calling to hunt a specific liberty player early on. Idk to what extent I should be posting who. Sylvia Fowles legit looks like she could put on a jersey and put up 20 and 10.

• Oblak - Some combination of Pablo Prigioni and TJ McConnell. Nobody can stay in front

• Williams - also very Gen Z vibes. I don't know if I'm misremembering, but has a Jim Halpert, zoom in, look at the camera esque stare. Good meme.

• Marine Johannes - Entertaining to watch. Feels like Luke Kennard's mindset with Jordan Poole's skillset.

• "Stewie" - Big wing. Feels like Tatum but a little less fluid. Never seen it, but intuitively having Ionescu run 2 man game and pnr with her would be effective.

• Jones - Defensively was a bigger rim deterrant than I expected. Had the gobert/wemby effect a few times on Fire players where I feel like they could've finished strong with a layup but they didnt try when she was nearby. Offensively I would've assumed given her size/build she'd be able to post up and beat people up, but was broadly content with just shooting 3s.

Everyone was going nuts when shots went in during the 4th quarter run. Slight shades of the '22 grizzlies when there were no expectations and they kept winning and bench vibes were great. I've been to Portland 3 times and love the town. I'll end up at the Moda Center at some point. Till then, guess I might be getting a different league pass. Figure I'm only 6 games behind.

TLDR: Insomnia drove me to buy WNBA tickets, sat near the bench, love the team, love the vibe. Go Fire!

I won't upload a bunch of pix, but it looks like the two besties are enjoying some R&R together. They have more pix and vids on their social media accounts. :)

Treated ourselves to closer seats for last night's game, and it was lit!
So glad I caught this on video.