Get to Know Portland Fire G Sarah Ashlee Barker
Sarah Ashlee Barker, a second year pro from the Los Angeles Sparks, was selected by the Portland Fire in yesterday's WNBA expansion draft.
Sarah Ashlee Barker is no stranger to adversity.
A year after moving across the country to embark upon a professional career, the Osteochondritis dissecans survivor must start over once again. Yesterday, the Portland Fire selected Barker in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Expansion Draft.
This piece is one of eleven profile pieces spotlighting the career journeys of Portland’s expansion draft selections - the first professional women’s basketball players to represent the Rose City since 2002 - and the first members of Portland’s new WNBA team.
As the daughter of former Alabama Crimson Tide national champion quarterback Jay Barker, Sarah grew up in the Birmingham suburbs, excelling in sports. The younger Barker furthered her family legacy by becoming the 2020 Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year, the 2020 Alabama Sports Writers’ Association Miss Basketball, and a two-time Alabama big-school 7A class Player of the Year. In 2018, she committed to play college basketball at Georgia.
Following a 2020-21 freshman year which earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors, Barker started every game as a sophomore. At season’s end, she transferred back home to Alabama, and was a three-year starter for the Crimson Tide. In Tuscaloosa, she earned back-to-back All-SEC First Team honors. Across five years of college basketball in one of the nation’s toughest conferences, Barker averaged 11.2 points on 44.3% field goal shooting, and 32.9% three point shooting, with 2.6 assists and a feisty 1.5 steals per game.
Last April, the Los Angeles Sparks drafted Barker ninth overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She appeared in 34 games, with 8 starts, averaging 14.1 minutes per contest. While her points and assists were low, Barker flashed dependable defensive prowess that could keep her employed in the W for many years to come.
Barker and her new Portland Fire teammates will return to the court later this Spring. The Fire’s regular season opener is at home May 9th against the Chicago Sky.
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Matt Bagley is a professional sportswriter and broadcaster with a passion for women’s sports. Outside of work, he cherishes quality time with his birth family, his chosen family, and one very pesky house panther.
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