Portland Fire Hires Cavs Assistant Sarama as Coach

Alex Sarama Will Lead the New WNBA Team in Portland

The Portland Fire have announced Alex Sarama, assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the head coach of their new team in the WNBA. The announcement was made on Friday, marking a milestone for the expansion franchise. Sarama is recognized as an expert in an innovative training system that has gained popularity in European basketball, soccer, and, increasingly, in the NBA. This system has been adopted by players like Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and coaches like Kenny Atkinson of the Cavaliers.

Having the opportunity to implement CLA (Constraints-Led Approach) principles with an expansion team is ideal. We will be able to hire people who fit the new system and not have to unlearn a previous system.

Alex Sarama

Sarama explained that the CLA approach allows players to adapt, improvise, and make effective decisions instead of following predetermined patterns and repetitive exercises. This involves, for example, the use of games with specific restrictions, such as changes in the rules, modifications to the score, or time limits, to force players to make decisions under pressure. Vanja Černivec, the team’s general manager, coming from the Golden State Valkyries, where she served as vice president of basketball operations, highlighted the importance of this new beginning. Černivec met Sarama at the NBA office in Europe in Madrid, being impressed by her intellect and passion for coaching.

For me, he was a genius. He produced documents and work that took me two hours, he did them in five or ten minutes. I wondered how this guy’s brain worked. His obsession was always training.

Vanja Černivec

Sarama, in addition to his academy, had successful experiences as a coach with the London Lions, Paris Basketball and RipCity Remix. His fame grew after the publication of his book “Transforming Basketball” in 2024. Atkinson, upon reading the book, incorporated him as a player development coach for the Cavaliers. Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson has been a great support for Sarama. “That was huge. Because once the players understand it and start to see how much it improves them, and you have total acceptance, then you can do more and more with it,” Sarama stated. Sarama explained that NBA players often enjoy the change that this training system offers. “It’s much more appealing, and when you never know what you might do in a workout compared to doing the same six exercises of the NBA, which all teams do in every workout. Simply coming and knowing that there’s going to be something more creative. I think that really resonates,” Sarama said. Hiring NBA coaches is becoming increasingly common in the WNBA, following the success of teams like the Phoenix Mercury and the Golden State Valkyries, whose head coach, Natalie Nakase, also came from the NBA. Sarama and the Cavaliers are still discussing when she will leave Cleveland to start full-time in Portland. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires on October 31, and it is not yet known how negotiations on the new agreement will affect the expansion draft and free agency. For now, she will remain in Cleveland, but hopes that her start in Portland, which will begin playing in May 2026, will not be delayed much.