Harvard Alum Temi Fagbenle ’15 Embraces New Chapter with the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo | Sports

When Harvard alum and WNBA star Temi Fagbenle ’15 speaks about basketball, she doesn’t start with stats or accolades. Instead, she begins with one thing less complicated.

“Just every day, waking up, getting out of bed, that’s a win,” she stated. “There are so many ways you can win in the day, and so many ways to be thankful, to be grateful.”

For Fagbenle, the latest member of one among the WNBA’s growth groups, the Toronto Tempo, success is just not outlined by a single second or milestone, however by a mindset formed over a decade-long skilled profession that has spanned continents, cultures, and leagues.

While at Harvard, Fagbenle was a standout ahead, getting named as a two-time All-Ivy League choice and serving as a key contributor to the program earlier than transferring to the University of Southern California for her last collegiate season.

Since ending his collegiate profession in 2016, Fagbenle has constructed an unlimited international successful nationwide championships in Spain, Italy, and Great Britain, in addition to the 2024 EuroCup title with the London Lions, and representing Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics

Fagbenle first joined the WNBA in 2017, successful a championship as a rookie with the Minnesota Lynx. She later returned to the league in 2024 with the Indiana Fever, with whom she averaged 9.1 factors and 5.6 rebounds by way of the first month of the season earlier than accidents restricted her to only 22 video games, half of a full season.

Fagbenle’s path to Toronto has not adopted a straight line. Throughout the course of her profession, she has moved between leagues, international locations, and roles, constructing a fame as a flexible ahead with worldwide expertise and a team-first strategy.

“I’ve experienced many different cultures, many different people,” Fagbenle defined. “That’s been able to shape my way of thinking and my way of approaching life, knowing that my opinion is not the only opinion out there.”

Now coming into her tenth 12 months as an expert basketball participant and her fifth in the WNBA, Fagbenle is bringing her veteran expertise to the Toronto Tempo. The transfer marks the league’s latest try to push into new markets, and is the league’s first staff primarily based in Canada. Fagbenle signed a one-year contract with the staff in April after coming into free company.

“It’s just fantastic to be part of another expansion team,” she stated. “I was in one last season. So the energy is palpable, and it’s really exciting.”

Fagbenle is at present the solely Harvard alumna in the WNBA, a part of a small however rising pipeline of Ivy League gamers reaching the skilled stage, together with former Princeton star Kaitlyn Chen, who joined the Golden State Valkyries this season.

This time, in Toronto, his focus is on constructing one thing collectively.

“Obviously, winning is part of it, but growing mainly as a team,” she stated. “We have our internal goals, and so if we achieve those, then obviously that is winning for us.”

That open perspective, she defined, has made her extra affected person and profitable, each on and off the court docket.

“You have a kind of giving each other grace,” she added. “It kind of grounds you and makes you a bit more patient.”

It’s an strategy that carries immediately into how she suits inside a staff.

“I’m here to do whatever the team wants me to do,” she stated. “If I’m needed to score, then I’m going to put my mind to that. If I’m needed to be a defensive threat, a defensive stopper, then that’s what I’m going to do. Rebounder? I’m gonna do it.”

Fagbenle’s team-oriented strategy started to take form in Cambridge. At Harvard, she balanced the calls for of Division I basketball with the rigor of Ivy League lecturers, a problem that may finally put together her for the self-discipline required at the skilled stage.

“Academics were always a big focus of mine, and so juggling both was difficult,” she stated. “But, people do it. If I was studying, I was fully focused on that. If I was on the court, I was fully focused on that.”

That skill to remain current in each educational and athletic conditions, Fagbenle defined, turned foundational.

“I just tried my best to stay present in each moment and kind of give my all to what I was doing,” she stated.

Still, his path ahead was removed from assured. During his school profession, Fagbenle battled patellar tendinopathy, a continual knee situation that made taking part in by way of ache a relentless problem, casting doubt on his skilled future.

“I didn’t think that it was going to be possible because of how much pain I was in,” she stated.

It was solely after transferring to USC in her last 12 months of school and dealing with their power and conditioning coach that her trajectory modified.

“That just transformed my life,” she stated.

The shift not solely allowed her to play with out fixed ache but additionally reopened the risk of an expert profession.

Beyond the sport, Fagbenle’s journey can also be formed by identification. Born in the United States, raised in London, and deeply linked to her Nigerian heritage, she describes herself as formed by all three.

“I feel American, I feel English, I feel Nigerian,” she stated. “I feel very blessed to be able to call each of these places home.”

Her background, she stated, shapes how she approaches each the sport and the world round her.

“Instead of immediately forming an allegiance with a certain country, I kind of just take a step back and try to see the full picture,” she stated.

That perspective was formed partly by her early worldwide expertise. At 19, Fagbenle competed for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics after being fast-tracked to the senior nationwide staff from the under-20 stage. Although Great Britain went 0-5 in group play, Fagbenle appeared in all 5 video games and averaged 4.8 factors, 4 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per sport whereas competing towards a few of the prime gamers in the world.

“I just thought I was a baby,” she stated. “But, looking back on it, I feel like I was forced to grow up a bit faster and understand what it takes to play on the next level.”

Playing alongside veteran teammates and Olympic-level competitors gave Fagbenle an early take a look at the physicality, self-discipline, and preparation wanted at the highest stage.

“I learned a lot from my peers,” she stated.

As she prepares for the upcoming WNBA season, Fagbenle is concentrated on getting higher in each a part of her sport.

“Always improving,” she stated. “My ball handling, my shooting, just being more aggressive, and just believing in my abilities on what I’ve worked on for all these years. Just trusting myself that I will make the right play.”

Beyond the technical facets of the sport, she strives for one thing deeper.

“Just continuing to have fun and find the joy in every moment,” she stated. “And understand that at the end of the day, this is still a game, and it’s something to be enjoyed, and it’s a blessing to be where I am.”

That perspective, she stated, is one she needs she had embraced earlier.

“Be nicer to yourself, be kinder to yourself, but also keep the fire that you have,” she stated. “Try and find the joy in each moment, because you don’t know when it’s going to be over.”

It’s a message formed not solely by her profession, however by the challenges alongside the approach, one she now hopes to move on to others navigating comparable paths.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out for help,” she suggested. “Being a student-athlete is not easy. Give yourself grace. Whatever you’re dealing with, you will get through it.”

For Fagbenle, the sport retains shifting, however his mindset has remained regular. As she begins this subsequent chapter in Toronto, she joins a veteran-heavy roster that features Marina Mabrey, Brittney Sykes, Julie Allemand, Nyara Sabally, and fellow WNBA veterans tasked with serving to launch the league’s first Canadian franchise.

The Tempo begins its inaugural season on Friday night time towards the Washington Mystics, starting what the group hopes can be the basis of a brand new period of girls’s basketball in Canada. For Fagbenle, the focus stays the identical: proceed enhancing, keep grounded, and embrace the alternative in entrance of her.

—Staff author Tamar H. Scheinfeld could be reached at [email protected].