Portland was ready for the WNBA. It got everything that came with it.

It was inevitable the WNBA would return to Oregon.

This is a basketball-mad state, one that doesn’t merely support women’s sports but expects them to matter. The Portland Thorns routinely draw crowds approaching 20,000. The Ducks and Beavers know their way around the NCAA Tournament, and the region’s prep pipeline produces stars such as Cameron Brink and Jazzy Davidson.

So it made sense when the league awarded Portland its 15th franchise on Sept. 18, 2024, more than two decades after the original Fire folded. It made sense when the new Fire began filling Moda Center and competing for a playoff spot in their inaugural season.

What was also inevitable was that Portland would inherit more than the WNBA’s stars, crowds and momentum. It would inherit the arguments surrounding a league growing too quickly and attracting too much attention to remain only about basketball.

All of that was on display Friday night.

It’s a hard sell to get Oregonians to spend one of their precious summer evenings indoors — or at least I thought it was until I became one of more than 17,000 people to attend the game between the Fire and Indiana Fever on a gorgeous night in Portland.

For my first WNBA game, I wanted to experience the energy, enthusiasm and talent the league has been riding over the last few years — partially fueled by the rise of Caitlin Clark, the three-point-shooting guard who had already helped sell out Moda Center during Indiana’s first trip through Portland in May.

And I saw much of what I came for.

Moda Center roared to life during lively pregame entrances, with pink thundersticks welcoming the arrival of the Fire and shrieks from Indiana fans as Clark took the floor. Many in the arena wore her jersey, joining the thousands dressed in Fire gear and the dozens wearing Oregon colors. It was University of Oregon Night, and a group of Ducks fans posed for a photo at the scorer’s table before tip-off.

The action on the floor was fast-paced, with the Fire hanging with the Fever for three quarters before Clark and Indiana pulled away for a 112-98 win.

Portland’s Bridget Carleton led the Fire with 26 points, going blow for blow with Clark, who recorded a 26-point triple-double for Indiana — including a dazzling buzzer-beating three to end the first quarter.

“Our crowd is incredible,” Carleton said afterward. “When we go on those runs, they’re like our sixth man. It’s just been incredible to play here.

“It was actually my parents’ first time here in Portland, and I’m excited to see them after the game to see what their experience is like.”

I didn’t get the opportunity to ask Carleton’s parents about their experience. But Friday was not a typical night in the Fire’s otherwise joyful introduction to the WNBA.

Friday carried a tension that had little to do with the happenings on the court. Indiana’s visit brought not only the league’s most recognizable star but a national political argument that had recently attached itself to one of her teammates, Sophie Cunningham, after she spoke out against the inclusion of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports in a recent ESPN profile.

“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest,” Cunningham told ESPN. “And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

A handful of signs inside Moda Center expressed support for Cunningham, but the crowd largely booed the 29-year-old every time she touched the ball.

The tension had reportedly turned ugly before the ball was even tipped. According to The Oregonian, Portland police opened an investigation after a Fire season-ticket holder reported that someone spit on them during the national anthem and made derogatory comments about lesbians and transgender people.

It made for an uncomfortable atmosphere and, admittedly, not the best night to get a representative sense of the Fire’s inaugural season. Then again, Friday may have brought the first major controversy through the Fire’s doors, but it won’t be the last.

That tension is increasingly part of the league. So, too, was Portland’s chosen response.

Cutting through the boos, cheers routinely rang out in Moda Center when fans carrying transgender pride flags were displayed on the video board.

“As this great league grows, it attracts fans from (all) walks of life. But when I think about Portland and what it means to live here, it’s inclusivity, it’s respect, and that’s why I’m so proud to be here,” Portland coach Alex Sarama said. “So I just think that’s what’s most important tonight and for our fans, it’s, you know, I want them to come and be comfortable and be safe like normal.”

Normal might be increasingly difficult to define around the WNBA. But Friday was also just one of 22 home games in a season that has brought stars such as A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Angel Reese to Moda Center.

It may not have been a typical night with the Fire. But it did not make me any less interested in seeing what a normal one feels like.