Women’s basketball alumna Nirra Fields named to Canadian Olympic team
Former UCLA guard Nirra Fields will play for Team Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Fields was recently drafted by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2016 WNBA Draft. (Keila Mayberry/Daily Bruin staff)
By Michael Hull
July 22, 2016 7:48 a.m.
Nirra Fields is headed to the Olympics.
The UCLA alumna, one of five first-time Olympians on the roster, was named to the Canadian women’s basketball team Friday morning.
This will be her third stint with the senior national team, having played on it in the 2015 Pan American Games and the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship.
In the Pan Am Games, Fields played in all five games as the team went 5-0. She averaged 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game, with a tournament-high 15 points against Brazil in the semifinal. When Canada beat Team USA 81-73 in the finals, Fields tallied nine points and seven rebounds to help her country qualify for its second consecutive Olympic berth.
After starting 33 of the Bruins’ 34 games her senior year, Fields is on eight of the school’s top-10 all-time lists, including third in 3-point shots made, fourth in overall scoring, fifth in field goals made and sixth in steals. Over four years, she also scored more than 20 points in 36 games, which ranks sixth all-time at UCLA.
All of this led to the Phoenix Mercury picking Fields 32nd overall in the 2016 WNBA draft, though she has yet to make the official roster.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Team Canada made it out of the group stage before falling to four-time defending gold medalist United States in the quarterfinal, finishing in eighth place.
This time, the Canadians kickstart their Olympic campaign against Team China August 6 with a rematch against the U.S. August 12.
