‘I’ve grown a lot in Edmonton: Kia Nurse excited to play her first WNBA game on home soil

Kia Nurse has actually played 161 WNBA video games in her profession and numerous other expert video games all around the world, however on May 4, she will be playing her first-ever expert video game in Canada.

While it will not remain in her home province of Ontario and in Toronto, like her present colleague on the Canadian nationwide group, Bridget Carleton, got to experience in 2015– it’s in Edmonton, a city that has actually become her 2nd home over the last years since the females’s nationwide group trains out of the city’s Saville Community Sports Centre at the University of Alberta.

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Nurse, who was traded to the LA Sparks by the Seattle Storm on Jan. 31, will play her very first preseason video game in Edmonton at Rogers Place versus Seattle.

“It’s been a long period of time because we’ve played a video game in Edmonton. I believe we gotten approved for the 2016 Olympics in Edmonton and there is a lot history, and gorgeous history with the Edmonton Grads, which’s something we got to discover a lot about while we existed,” stated Nurse previously today over a Zoom call.

“I’ve been concerning Edmonton for nationwide group (training school) because that very first year when I was a 16-year-old and afraid of everybody else. I’ve grown a lot in Edmonton.”

Growing in appeal

Women’s sports have actually grown in appeal over the last a number of years. The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) introduced this previous season with 6 groups (Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto). Women’s college basketball has actually increased in appeal recently with previous Iowa Hawkeyes super star Caitlin Clark making a huge effect.

Television numbers and participation records have actually been broken on numerous celebrations, revealing there is a growing interest in ladies’s sports throughout North America.

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“I believe we’re relocating that instructions. As a female professional athlete, something we constantly discuss among ourselves and the majority of the circles we’re in is comprehending that modification occurs at whatever rate it wishes to take place at and typically it’s a lot slower than what we expect it at,” stated Nurse.

“There is a great deal of enjoyment around (ladies’s sports) today, and we’re on the cusp of pressing forward and eliminating a few of those stories about ladies’s sports which no one watches … it’s blatantly apparent with the numbers and the videos individuals are seeing, there is a desire and want to enjoy.

“The energy and the buzz is there for everyone and our leagues are continuing to grow. It seems like we’re getting to that leading where it’s going to boil over in the best instructions.”

For Nurse, this exhibit video game in Edmonton is much more significant. She will have a lot of loved ones by her side to cheer her on, including her older sibling, Edmonton Oilers defenceman, Darnell Nurse.

Nurse’s video game was initially set up for May 5, however with the Oilers presently fighting the Los Angeles Kings in the preliminary of the playoffs, it got pressed a day previously.

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“I believe what I’m actually thrilled about as we have really type of missed out on each other in the last number of years due to the fact that I’m constantly in camp (throughout the NHL playoffs),” stated Nurse, who’s likewise bet the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty.

“It’s strange, now my moms and dads are coming here (to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4)… we can all get supper together and after that he’s gon na play his video games and we’re gon na go view them and after that return to Edmonton. We’re going to get a complete additional week with my household, which is good.

Prepared for Olympics this summertime

Nurse will play a huge part in Canada’s chase for a medal at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. It will be her 3rd Olympic Games.

After tearing her ACL in 2021, and it restricting her when she went back to the court in 2023, she’s totally healthy and all set to take her video game to another level.

“For me, personally, it’s terrific, this will be my 3rd Olympics,” stated Nurse.

“But I do not simply wish to go to an Olympics. I wish to get home with some hardware, and I believe that’s the frame of mind for a great deal of us who are returning there for numerous times.”

Nurse thinks she’s over all the physical and psychological difficulties of her knee injury and while it’s been a long journey in healing, she feels she’s back to the level of being a dominant gamer on the court.

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“I believe (last season) that’s where I felt it a bit more, that trouble and fight of feeling more like yourself, and the self that you wish to be ideal away and what your body is physically able to do,” stated Nurse.

“I’m thrilled for this brand-new chance and this group and company. This group and function here I can use this group … there’s more to the function here than I had in Seattle.”

While Nurse definitely wishes to assist lead the Sparks to win over Seattle in Edmonton, she has another objective, while in Edmonton, this time as her function as an auntie.

“My nephew, (Darnell’s earliest) is nearly 3, and he’s on skates, so I require to ensure he sees a great basketball video game, so it offers him a chance to fall for our sport, too,” stated Nurse.

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