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.
The Portland Fire picked two international players and traded for a key member of the University of Connecticut's strong women's team at the 2026 WNBA Draft, the first involving the new Portland franchise. The Portland Fire unveiled a new logo at the team’s launch party, in Portland, Ore., July 15, 2025.
Anna Lueck for OPB / OPB
“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.
Meanwhile, 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, 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 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. 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.
The Fire are planning a press conference Tuesday to discuss the WNBA Draft.
