New Tempo GM Wright Rogers brings championship pedigree to role
Monica Wright Rogers knows what it takes to win.
That is one of the many reasons why the Toronto Tempo hired the two-time WNBA champion former player as the franchise’s first general manager.
Wright Rogers cheerfully explained the type of team she is looking to put together as the Tempo introduced her at a press conference in Toronto on Thursday.
“A winning team. I think that again, I want to make sure that I’m respectful to our future head coach and allowing them to shape that on court product,” said Wright Rogers. “But there are some obvious things that it takes to win in this league. Our team will definitely look to have that.”
The 36-year-old spent the last two seasons as the assistant general manager for the Phoenix Mercury, and has now been given the unique and daunting task of building out the team from scratch, starting with a head coach.
Wright Rogers will lead basketball operations for the Tempo, with the immediate responsibilities of first hiring a head coach and then putting together a roster of players for the team’s inaugural season in 2026.
“I think that we have a great amount of coaching candidates out there,” said Wright Rogers. “And I would hope by expansion draft that we would have someone in place.”
There is going to be a great deal of talent available on the court as well. The WNBA announced a new 11-year media rights deal in July that is valued at $2.2 billion and includes partnerships with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and NBCUniversal.
This is one of the reasons why players opted out of the league’s existing collective bargaining agreement in October 2024, and is likely why many of the top available free agents this offseason signed one-year deals.
“In the coming months, we’re going to build this team from the ground up, hiring not only a head coach, but an entire roster of talent that will shape our first season,” said Wright Rogers. “We’ll do that, of course, through the expansion draft.
“But also, through what I believe will be the most dynamic free agency period that the league has ever seen. Twenty-one of this last year’s WNBA All Stars are set to become unrestricted free agents in 2026. We are dedicated to bringing the greatest basketball talent in the world here to Toronto. And in part, we’re not just building this team for a city, but an entire country.”
How will Monica and the Tempo attract the best of the best to come up north?
She believes the best will come for the same reasons she did.
”Me learning about the city, it’s a sports city,” said Wright Rogers. “The passion and appetite they have for sports in general is unmatched. Then you add on top of it the passion that they have for women’s basketball and the appetite for this WNBA team. And, why wouldn’t I take this opportunity? It’s a no brainer.”
The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s second-newest expansion franchise that is set to debut in 2025, had difficulty filling out the remainder of their roster with free agents after their expansion draft, eventually adding three undrafted players whose only professional experience came internationally – Janelle Salaün, Kyara Linskens and Chloe Bibby. The Valkyries’ lone signing with league experience was 35-year-old Tiffany Hayes, who came out of retirement to sign with the Las Vegas Aces in 2024.
Despite the inherent difficulty expansion franchises have in appealing to established players, Wright Rogers spoke optimistically on the matter.
“Players want to be in a situation where they feel the support, they can be competitive and win,” said Wright Rogers. “And we get all of those here. They’ll have a top fan base, they’ll have support. The business side is so robust that they’ll feel support on all sides. And so I think, again, it was a no brainer for me. It’ll be a no brainer for a player to want to play in a market like this.”
The WNBA coming to Canada is yet another signifier of the game’s growth north of the border, and the women’s game specifically has exploded in recent years when it comes to amount of high-level Canadian talent coming through the pipeline. A record 135 Canadians are playing in NCAA women’s basketball programs this season.
Will the Tempo take advantage of this uptick in homegrown talent?
”I don’t want to make any roster promises, but I will say that I’m really excited about the talent that Canada has in the WNBA and upcoming through the national team pipelines,” said Wright Rogers when asked how important it was to have a Canadian presence on the roster. “And I think that there’s a tremendous opportunity to get some of that talent in the future.”
A former second-overall selection of the Minnesota Lynx in 2010, Wright Rogers went on to win championships with them in 2011 and 2013.
Her long list of accomplishments also includes McDonalds All-American honours, 2010 ACC Player of the Year, a 2010 WNBA All-Rookie team selection, assistant coaching roles at Liberty University and her alma mater, Virginia, and her two-year stint as the assistant general manager of the Mercury.
However according to Tempo president Teresa Resch, it was who Wright Rogers is as a person – beyond her extensive resume and list of accolades – that differentiated her from the rest of the field.
“Her wide breadth of experiences really captured us, and ultimately what set her apart was who she is as a person and what she brings to the table,” said Resch at the press conference on Tuesday. “And the people that she’s worked with and she’s closest with cannot stop bragging about the qualities that we most want to prioritize in this hire.”
Resch described relationship building and bringing people together as Wright Rogers’ two superpowers. This was evident as her former boss, Mercury General Manager Nick U’Ren, made the trip from Arizona to be there on Tuesday.
The newly minted Tempo general manager made her debut with the Lynx at the start of dynastic period as the team went on to win four championships in seven seasons. She will carry that experience with her as she once again gets in on the ground floor of something new, with the chance to do something special.
”I think it helps me tremendously, and like you said, just being there for the dynasty, I know exactly what it took to get there,” said Wright Rogers. “I think that really shapes how I select talent. It really shapes how I select people to be a part of, like I said, this organization. So it’s everything to have that experience and know what it takes to be great.”
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