Seattle Storm Franchise History
From Hoopedia
In seven WNBA seasons, the Seattle Storm has been one of the league's most consistently successful franchises. Powered by the duo of Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, both members of the WNBA's 10th Anniversary Team, the Storm has made four playoff appearances in the last five seasons and brought home the 2004 WNBA title. Coach Anne Donovan, the WNBA's third-winningest coach and the first female coach to win a championship and 100 WNBA games, oversees it all.
On June 7, 1999, the WNBA announced Seattle as one of four expansion teams to begin play in the 2000 season. Within the next two months, former Seattle Reign (ABL) GM Karen Bryant was tabbed to run the Storm's business operations, while another ABL vet, former Portland Power and Purdue Head Coach Lin Dunn was name the team's first coach.
On September 30, 1999, Bryant and Dunn dribbled a WNBA basketball 5.5 miles through downtown Seattle to increase awareness of the Storm's drive to the required 5,500 season ticket deposits. By the October 15 deadline, the team secured 7,200 deposits, easily surpassing the requirement.
The first players in franchise history were selected in the December 15 WNBA Expansion Draft. select Edna Campbell from the Phoenix Mercury, Sonja Henning from the Houston Comets, Angela Aycock from the Minnesota Lynx, Nina Bjedov from the Los Angeles Sparks, Toni Foster from the Phoenix Mercury and Charmin Smith from the Minnesota Lynx.
The franchise got its name on January 6, 2000, when it announced it would be called the Storm, unveiling a logo less than two weeks later. After making Czech center Kamila Vodichkova the first amateur draft selection in franchise history, the Storm was ready to begin play.
The first game in Storm history was played May 30 at Sacramento's ARCO Arena. Katrina Hibbert scored the franchise’s first-ever field goal, but the Storm fell, 76-60. A night later, the Storm christened KeyArena by hosting the three-time defending champion Houston Comets. In front of 10,840 fans, Houston soundly defeated the Storm, 77-47.
In the franchise's fifth game, the Storm earned its first win, defeating the Charlotte Sting 67-62 at the Charlotte Coliseum. Four nights later, the Storm won for the first time at KeyArena, taking down the Los Angeles Sparks 69-59 in overtime - one of just four regular-season losses for the Sparks that season.
Wins would ultimately be few and far between as the Storm finished its inaugural season 6-26. A long season would ultimately pay dividends, however, as the Storm earned the right to select promising 19-year-old Australian post Lauren Jackson with the first pick of the WNBA Draft.
While young and homesick, Jackson quickly emerged as the Storm's star, leading the team with 15.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. She was selected as the first All-Star in Storm history, scoring 11 points in the West's win at TD Waterhouse Center in Orlando. Fellow rookie Semeka Randall was also impressive, scoring a franchise-record 28 points in the Storm's June 12 win over the Orlando Miracle.
At 10-22, the Storm finished 2001 tied with three other teams for the WNBA's worst record. Again, it would pay off in the end. The first WNBA Draft Lottery favored the Storm, who won the top overall pick and selected UConn point guard Sue Bird, putting together a pairing that would carry the Storm to great heights.
Bird wasted little time in making her presence felt. In her third game, the Storm hosted Minnesota. Trailing by 11 midway through the second half, the Storm rallied behind Bird to force overtime, where the rookie scored eight of her game-high 27 points in the Storm's 78-68 win.
Inconsistent in the first half of the season, the Storm came up with big wins including a 79-60 blowout win over the eventual champion Sparks but had a 10-13 record on July 23. That's when Bird and Jackson got going, carrying the Storm to a franchise-record five-game winning streak. On August 9, the Storm hosted I-5 rivals Portland in a must-win game for a chance at the playoffs. Bird scored a career-high and franchise-record 33 points as the Storm won 83-74. A blowout win over playoff-bound Utah two nights later secured the Storm's first trip to the playoffs.
In the postseason, the Storm matched up with Los Angeles after defeating the Sparks 2-1 in the season series. The veteran Sparks gave no opening to the Storm in the playoff series, however, sweeping the Storm in two games.
After the 2002 season, the Storm hired Anne Donovan away from the Charlotte Sting to replace Dunn, who resigned after three seasons in Seattle. In her first season coaching the Storm, Donovan led the team to a franchise-record 18 wins, but the Storm lost five straight games after Vodichkova joined fellow starter Adia Barnes on the injured list and missed out on the postseason on a tie-breaker.
The highlight of 2003 was the development of Jackson, who grew into the dominant superstar she was projected to become after starring at the age of 19 in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Jackson won MVP honors, leading the league in scoring and ranking in the top five in rebounds and blocks. Jackson set a franchise record with 34 points, recorded the first 20-20 game in Storm history and scored double-figures in every game of the season.
For 2004, the Storm came back with a new cast of veterans alongside Bird, Jackson and Vodichkova. Betty Lennox came from Cleveland in the WNBA Dispersal Draft, joining her fourth team in three years. The Storm acquired Sheri Sam from Miami, giving up the sixth pick in the amateur draft. Lennox and Sam gave the Storm a new swagger that was evident when Lennox's game-winner gave the Storm its first win ever in Sacramento's ARCO Arena early in the season. That win was part of a franchise-long six-game winning streak.
The 2004 season was interrupted by a break for the Athens Olympics. The Storm sent Bird and Jackson to Athens along with Donovan, an assistant coach on the U.S. Olympic Team. The two teammates ended up squaring off in the gold-medal game, with the U.S. emerging victorious. With Jackson missing three games after the season continued, the Storm slumped in the month of September but clinched a playoff berth on September 12 and earned home-court advantage for the first time at 20-14.
The Storm faced Minnesota in the Western Conference Semifinals, defeating the Lynx 70-58 in Minnesota for the first playoff win in franchise history and returning home to sweep the series with a 64-54 win at KeyArena. The Storm played most of Game 2 without Sue Bird, who broke her nose in a collision early in the game.
Bird returned as the Storm faced the Sacramento Monarchs in the Western Conference Finals. After losing at the buzzer in overtime at ARCO, the Storm won Game 2 to set up a deciding Game 3. There, the Storm went on a 20-0 run in the second half to send Sacramento home. Bird, playing a day after surgery on her nose, handed out a Playoffs-record 14 assists.
Playing in the WNBA Finals for the first time, the Storm faced the Connecticut Sun. The trip East came up empty, as Connecticut won 68-64 before the series shifted to KeyArena. Game 2 was a duel between Lennox and the Sun's Nykesha Sales. Sales scored a Finals-record 32 points while Lennox had 27, but Sales came up empty on the big shot - missing a three attempt at the buzzer that could have given Connecticut the win.
It all came down to Game 3, played for the second straight game in front of a full house of 17,072 at KeyArena. The crowd powered the Storm, which opened the second half with a 12-4 run after leading by one at the break. Connecticut was scoreless for over four and a half minutes as the Storm secured a 74-60 win for the franchise's first WNBA Championship and the first major pro sports championship since the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics.
The Storm attempted to defend its title without Sam, Vodichkova and veteran backup Tully Bevilaqua, who all departed as free agents after the season. A new Storm quartet of Bird, Lennox, Jackson and center Janell Burse took center stage. The All-Star Game was a [[2005 highlight, as Donovan coached the West team with Bird and Jackson both as starters. The West scored a record 122 points and blew out the East 122-99. The Storm finished with 20 wins, matching 2004's total, and the second seed in the Western Conference.
The Storm matched up with the veteran Houston Comets and MVP Sheryl Swoopes. The Storm went to Houston and stole Game 1 by a 75-67 final. Back at KeyArena, the Storm was closing in on a sweep, leading 62-59 with 2:48 to play, before Houston finished the game on an 8-2 run to tie the series. Game 3 was, stunningly, all Houston. The Comets led by 17 at the half and won by the same margin as Swoopes recorded the WNBA's first Playoff triple-double (14 points, 10 boards and 10 assists). The Storm became just the second team in league history to lose Games 2 and 3 on its homecourt.
2006 saw the Storm fight injuries all season long, starting with Jackson. Recurring shin splints limited Jackson to 30 minutes a game and kept her from practicing regularly. Burse came back from the off-season with a shoulder injury that cost her seven games. Veteran reserves Wendy Palmer, the Storm's big off-season addition, and Shaunzinski Gortman both suffered season-ending injuries. Still, the Storm secured a playoff berth for the third straight season at 18-16. Facing the Sparks for the first time in 2002, the Storm won Game 1 at KeyArena but saw its offense go cold in two losses at the Staples Center that ended the season.
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