WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert holds a Portland Fire jersey after selecting Iyana Martin Carrion, of Spain, seventh overall in the first round of the WNBA basketball draft, Monday, April 13, 2026, in New York.
Pamela Smith / AP
The Portland Fire charted their own course Monday night as they picked three players in the three-round WNBA 2026 draft. While several WNBA franchises picked extensively from the rosters of college teams that went deep in the recently-completed NCAA tournament, the Fire focused their top two picks — 7 and 17 — on international players.
“With the seventh pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft and their first-ever pick, the Portland Fire select Iyana Martin Carrion, from Spain,” announced WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert from the podium of a draft ceremony broadcast live on ESPN.
The announcement of Martin Carrion’s selection was met with polite applause at the event in New York City.
Ten picks later, when the commissioner announced the Fire were selecting Frieda Buhner, a 6’1” German forward playing in Spain, the audience was quiet.
The crowd was simultaneously making sense of a trade announced just a moment before, involving the Fire’s West Coast rivals Seattle Storm and Golden State Valkyries.
But when Fire General Manager Vanja Cernivec sat down to answer questions about the team’s draft picks, she couldn’t stop grinning. She started by praising Martin Carrion.
“This year, that such a generational talent is actually available at seventh, outside a lottery pick, is just incredible,” Cernivec said. “I don’t think we could be happier to invite Iyana to Portland.”
Cernivec said that both of the European players the Fire chose - Martin Carrion at 7 and Buhner at 17 - are already playing at a very high level at ages 20 and 21, respectively.
“The fact that the two players we took are carrying their national team on their shoulders is something we just can’t ignore,” Cernivec said.
To the Fire’s fans unfamiliar with the draft selections, Cernivec said, “Just give them a chance.”
For Martin Carrion, fans will have to exercise both patience and trust.
The Fire’s top pick won’t come to Portland for the upcoming season, based on a conversation the Fire GM had with her.
Cernivec said Martin Carrion preferred to rest this summer, after a grueling few months playing professionally and on the Spanish national team, as well as recovering from an illness that was serious enough to put her in the hospital.
While the Portland Fire picked two players from Europe, other WNBA teams were combining to set a record for the most players selected from a single university, with five first-round picks taken from the NCAA champion UCLA Bruins. A sixth player from that women’s championship team found a home in the second round.
The NCAA runner-up, the University of South Carolina, had three players taken.
The Fire waited until later Monday night to add a player from the American college ranks.
The Fire used their third-round pick on Taylor Bigby, who played her freshman year at the University of Oregon before transferring to USC and ultimately Texas Christian University.
Bigby wasn’t with the Fire long, however. Shortly after the draft ended, the Fire announced they were trading Bigby to the Connecticut Sun for University of Connecticut forward Serah Williams.
Cernivec was excited about Williams as a player who could contribute right away on the defensive end of the court with the potential to grow on offense.
“You can not have too many UConn players on your team ever,” Cernivec said Monday. “We think we can develop her into a really, really good player on our team. Defensively, we know she’s already a monster.”
The Sun had picked Williams just a few spots before the Fire were able to make their third-round selection. The Sun will also receive Portland’s third-round pick in the 2027 draft.
