General manager Vanja Černivec proves to be ‘right fit’ for Portland Fire’s ‘big vision’

When Ohemaa Nyanin was scouring the women’s basketball community in search of her first hire as general manager of the Golden State Valkyries , one name kept popping up over and over again.

Vanja Černivec .

And every time someone mentioned Černivec’s name, it included the same refrain.

“Everybody that you talk to about her has a positive story they kind of leave you with,” Nyanin said. “What she’s done, how she’s done it, where she’s done it. It was the same with everybody, everywhere. It was overwhelmingly positive, and the breadth of that was super important to me. The first thing I told my ownership group, our operations people — and anybody who would listen — is that Vanja Černivec is the person that I want to build with.”

Thirteen months later, Nyanin will have to continue he