Tonight at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, two new WNBA franchises will begin to exist. The Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo hold their expansion draft, the first time in the modern era that two teams are selecting simultaneously from unprotected rosters across all 13 existing clubs [1].

As we previewed yesterday, the draft follows a snake format: Portland picks first, the teams alternate through round one, then Toronto opens round two. Each existing team protected only five players, leaving the rest exposed to selection [2]. The result is a controlled demolition -- front offices across the league faced impossible choices about whom to shield and whom to sacrifice.

The pre-draft maneuvering has been fierce. The Chicago Sky announced agreements with both expansion franchises, ensuring neither would select a Sky player [3]. The Golden State Valkyries, last year's expansion team still building their own identity, now face the possibility of losing players to the very process that created them [4].

Toronto won the coin toss and chose the sixth pick in the regular WNBA draft on April 13, a strategic bet on a specific prospect [5]. Portland takes the seventh pick and the first selection tonight.

The last time the WNBA expanded was 2024, when the Valkyries joined as a single addition. Before that, expansion hadn't happened since the league's early years. Two at once is unprecedented. By midnight, two rosters will be built from the players their former teams chose to leave behind.

-- Amara Okonkwo, Lagos