You might want to hold off on the coming up with nifty new nicknames or colour schemes for a local WNBA team.

It’s years away despite a flurry of social media activity of late.

I will put my record of supporting women’s basketball up against anyone’s in the country over the last decade or so and Masai is tired of me harping on him to find a way to get a WNBA team in Toronto under the Maple Leaf Sports umbrella.

I think the league is important and the game is entertaining and it would be a wonderful addition to the Toronto sports landscape to have a team here. That’s never been in doubt and my support of it is well stated and genuine.

So it pains me a bit to have to throw cold water on this social media nonsense that’s percolating out there to fan hopes that somehow, someway, some people are going to find a way to get a team here next year.

I swear it took me about two and half hours yesterday to reach out to a couple of people to get this statement from the WNBA’s chief operating officer Christy Hedgpeth:

"Toronto is a terrific market and we appreciate the interest in the WNBA. However, the league's main focus right now is the overall health and competitiveness of our existing 12 teams."

As well it should be and while this whole social media thing about WNBATO is nice, it’s folly and it’s not legit and it’s fanning false hope and that’s not right.

Here are five things that made it, from the start, a non-starter:

Where do they play?

Are leases in place?

How will they put together a roster?

Do they have a 10-year business plan in place because that might be how long it takes to operate on even a yearly break-even proposition?

Does the league – which has no CBA with its player association in place past this year – have bigger fish to fry?

This thing has been bogus from the start and, I swear, it’s done more harm that good. It has gotten people’s hopes up when it shouldn’t. I’m sure no one connected with this social media campaign had malice in their minds but I also think they might not have been entirely forthcoming about the realities of life. To think – as they apparently did – that you could “submit paperwork this summer” with an aim to play next year shows nothing but a shocking level of naivety that is telling.

How about this: WNBA fans in Toronto need to do is think about NBA fans in Vancouver and remember what happens if you screw up ownership in the first place and a team leaves. Do you get a second chance? You better make dead certain the first group understands the hits they’ll have to take and the process involved because if you mess it up once, you aren’t likely to get a chance to mess it up a second time.

The WNBA is in flux. It has no deal with its players’ association past this fall and it has tons of other issues to deal with before it can even think about expanding. And if you’re a franchise owner today and you’ve lost tons of money to this point, why on Earth would you bail now before seeing what a new economic landscape looks like and whether or not you can recoup some of your losses?

Do I think someday that the WNBA will be in the Toronto area? I absolutely do and I think it will do extremely well and it will help provide young girls with role models that they can go see in person and that will be outstanding.

I know it will not be next year and I would be stunned if it was even in 2021, as hard as that is for some to comprehend.

But you have to trust me on this: The WNBA is well aware of where the game is in Canada and what it can capitalize on to not only help the women’s game grow but also have a successful, financially viable franchise to count among its league members.

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It’s just not the right time, as much as so many of us wish it were.

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Just gonna toss this out there.

I’m not sure what I’m doing on Wednesday night but I can 1,000,000 per cent assure you it won’t be watching the ESPYs.

In case you were wondering.

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Yesterday day in Raptorland (and you’ll forgive me for not doing the predictable story on every transaction but I’m never sure what a third paragraph would be and I need to coast a bit) the local heroes decided to re-up Patrick McCaw on a deal for apparently two years and an unspecified amount according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic, for first unearthed the news as far as I can tell).

It’s another solid depth piece signing and of all the non-shooting, kinda-long, somewhat-intriguing group they’ve put together in three or four days, I think McCaw’s got the best chance to be a legit, long-term NBA player.

That’s not saying much, I know, but to me he’s a really intriguing player.

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We should probably get at least a start on the weekend mail, shall we? Click on askdoug@thestar.ca if you’ve got something on your mind and I’ll try to help you out.

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