Move over Darnell, your sister is taking over Rogers Place.
Canadian national-team regular Kia Nurse will be in the spotlight this Saturday as her Los Angeles Sparks face the Seattle Storm in a WNBA preseason game at Rogers Place.
Nurse is entering her sixth WNBA season, but it will be her first as a member of the Sparks, a team that’s in a rebuilding phase. The three-point shooting ace will be looked to help mentor a young team that will likely take its lumps.
In 2023, a WNBA exhibition game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky sold out Toronto’s Scotiabank Centre. Since then, we’ve seen new attendance records set at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, NHL arenas have sold out for PWHL games and Caitlin Clark-mania has engulfed North America, with record viewership numbers for women’s hoops.
So, is this the coming-out era for women’s sports?
“I think we’re moving in that direction,” said Nurse during a media call. “As female athletes, something we all really talk about amongst ourselves, and in most of the circles we’re in, is understanding that change happens at whatever rate it wants to happen at. Ultimately, it usually happens a lot slower than we anticipated or hoped for.
“I think we are on the cusp of pushing forward in terms of getting rid of some of those narratives about women’s sports, or that nobody watches women’s sports. It’s pretty blatantly obvious in the facts, the numbers and the videos that everybody is seeing — there is a desire for women’s sport, to watch it and to have it on home soil… It feels like the energy and buzz is there for everybody, and our leagues are only continuing to grow.”
It’s an Olympic year, so it’s a big one for Nurse, who aims to be one of the leaders for the women’s national team in Paris.
She’s won two NCAA championships at the University of Connecticut; her sister, Tamika, played basketball at the University of Oregon and at Bowling Green State University. Her dad, Richard, played in the CFL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Her mom, Cathy, played basketball at McMaster University. Cousin Sarah is a PWHL superstar. Her uncle is NFL legend Donovan McNabb.
And, last but certainly not least, her brother, Darnell, is sorta familiar to Edmonton hockey fans.
This week allows the family to celebrate both hockey and basketball, with Darnell being embroiled in a playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings. Kia said that, over the last couple of years, she would have loved to have seen an Oilers playoff game in person, but that conflicts with WNBA training camps. But, this year, opportunity knocks.
“My parents are coming here (to Los Angeles), and now I also live here, so we can all get dinner together and then he (Darnell) is going to play his games and I can go watch them. And then I get to come back to Edmonton, so I get another full extra week with my family, which is nice.
“I’m proud of him and everything he’s continued to do, and he inspires me to be where I am today.”
