When the Seattle Storm drafted speedy point guard Jordin Canada No. 5 overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft, no professional sports team in L.A. had won a championship in the previous eight years besides the Sparks.
Fast forward four years and Canada has two titles to her credit as a member of the Storm – and the Lakers, Dodgers and Rams all have won championships too.
Could the Sparks – whose last title came in 2016 – be due?
Canada would like to think so.
The 26-year-old L.A. native who starred at Windward High School and at UCLA signed with the Sparks as a free agent on Feb. 8, coming aboard on a guaranteed one-year, $98,000 deal.
“Growing up in L.A., it’s just a sense of pride and sense of swagger about us,” Canada said Tuesday in a Zoom video conference from half a world away, in Hungary, where she’d just checked into a hotel with her club team Uni Gyor and it was closing in on 10 p.m.
“We have a lot of greats that are coming out of L.A., and I really consider myself one of those greats and being part of the culture. I take a lot of pride in that, wanting to represent where I come from. And then just being back here and seeing L.A. winning all these championships, from the Lakers and the Rams and the Dodgers, it just gets me excited to want to bring another championship to the Sparks as well.”
LA Culture >>>>>
— Jordin Canada (@jordin_canada) February 14, 2022
Though familiar to Southern California basketball fans, Canada will be one of the new faces on a retooled Sparks’ roster.
She’ll join wing Katie Lou Samuelson, a former Mater Dei High standout and a teammate of Canada’s in Seattle last season, as well as flashy young guard Chennedy Carter. Also, presumably, center Liz Cambage, a four-time WNBA All-Star who ESPN reported has agreed to sign with L.A., which was hammered by injuries last season and finished 12-20, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Canada said she has communicated with all of her new coaches as well as new teammates Nneka Ogwumike, Amanda Zahui B., Arella Guirantes and Samuelson – but, no, she hasn’t been in touch with Cambage.
“I haven’t reached out to Liz,” Canada said. “I’ve seen all the things on Twitter about her potentially joining L.A., and hoping that will follow through. I think that’ll be great to have her as a teammate if she winds up coming to the Sparks.
“But you know, hopefully, she’ll be an L.A. Spark.”
Canada said it was both a dream come true – and a surprise – landing at home after four seasons in Seattle, where she averaged 7.2 points, 4.1 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game as Sue Bird’s capable understudy. The 5-foot-6 Canada averaged 2.3 steals per game in 2019, when she started all but one game in place of an injured Bird and earned recognition on the WNBA All-Defensive First Team.
This offseason, Seattle initially extended a qualifying offer to Canada, who was a restricted free agent, but after signing free agent Briann January to serve as backup point guard next season, the Storm rescinded the offer and made her an unrestricted free agent.
Three days later, she reached an agreement with her hometown team.
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“I’m gonna be real honest with you guys, it was a really tough free agency,” said Canada, a 17.9% career 3-point shooter who characterizes herself as more of a midrange scoring threat akin to Phoenix Suns star Chris Paul.
“I wasn’t really thinking about playing for the Sparks. Considering all the players that they had at the time and the guard play that they had, I wasn’t really thinking that the Sparks were looking for me, to be honest, and so I was kind of looking elsewhere.
“And at the last minute, Derek Fisher reached out,” she said of the Sparks’ head coach and general manager, who also was a five-time NBA champion with the Lakers. “We talked for about a good 45 minutes on me coming home and what it would mean … how I could bring what I have and my strengths to help bring this team back to what it used to be, a championship organization.
“And I was all for it. It’s always been a dream of mine to play for the Sparks. I knew that I wanted it to happen at some point in my career, I just didn’t know when, and it just kind of happened out of nowhere, and I took that as a sign to come back home and to play for my city.”
𝙎𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠, 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠, 𝙩𝙤 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙞, 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙞
Welcome Home, Jordin
: https://t.co/6m8SaBX0vH@jordin_canada | #GoSparks pic.twitter.com/slxNhrq0G5
— Los Angeles Sparks (@LASparks) February 8, 2022