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Connecticut Sun TV Analyst Hired for Front Office Job with Portland Fire

The Connecticut Sun will have find a new television analyst after the expansion Portland Fire made their latest hire.

Matt Postins

WNBA Scoreboard at College Park Center
WNBA Scoreboard at College Park Center / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The Portland Fire are building a new franchise and have decided to hire a Connecticut Sun TV analyst to help them in the front office.

Ashley Battle, who has served as the analyst for Sun games the last three seasons, is now the vice president of basketball operations, strategy and innovation for the Fire. The franchise is set to make its WNBA debut in 2026.

Battle, a former UConn star and six-year WNBA veteran, will also oversee basketball operations, roster construction, talent identification, player performance strategies and analytics under general manager Vanja Černivec, per a release from the Fire.

About Ashley Battle

"It's exciting to be part of a franchise that's reimagining what player development and team culture can look like," Battle said in the statement. "Having been in the players' shoes, I know how powerful it is when an organization invests in every aspect of an athlete's growth. The Fire is building something special, and I'm proud to now be contributing to that vision."

Battle brings experience to the job as a player, both at the collegiate and pro level. She was a three-time national champion at UConn from 2002-04 and was named the Big EAST defensive player of the year in 2003. That made her a natural to return to work television for the Sun.

After she left UConn she was a second-round pick of the Seattle Storm in the 2005 WNBA draft and played the season with the Storm. Following that, she played four years with the New York Liberty and a final season with the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2010 before leaving the league.

She averaged 5.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game in 142 career contests, mostly off the bench. She played in three postseasons, including a 2008 run with the Liberty that saw her lead the team in games played.

She also has front office experience as the assistant general manager for the Maine Celtics, the NBA G League affiliate of the Boston Celtics, and as a scout for the Boston Celtics.

With the new job, Battle will have to watch a potentially seismic offseason for the Sun and the rest of the WNBA from the west coast. Now that the WNBA playoffs are complete, the players’ union and the WNBA are working on a new collective bargaining agreement. The current one expires on Oct. 31, but the two sides are far apart on a new agreement.

The Sun is dealing with potential ownership issues. The Mohegan Tribe, which owns the team, has entertained majority and minority ownership offers from a current NBA minority team owner, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and the league, which intended to pass the team to Houston. The state of Connecticut wants to keep the team in the state, to the point where it is willing to invest part of its pension fund in the franchise.

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