The Seattle Storm are a professional American women's basketball team based in Seattle, Washington, that competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). They are a member of the Western Conference and joined the league in the 2000 season as one of four expansion franchises that year.[1][2] The Storm initially shared ownership with the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played at the same home venue, KeyArena on the Seattle Center campus. During the relocation of the SuperSonics, the Storm were sold to a new ownership group and remained at KeyArena until it closed after the 2018 season for major renovations.[3] The team temporarily relocated to the Hec Edmundson Pavilion on the University of Washington campus during the 2019 season and Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett during the 2019 and 2021 seasons;[4][5] the shortened 2020 season was played entirely behind closed doors at an isolated site in Bradenton, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] Since 2022, the Storm have played at Climate Pledge Arena, a new facility built on the site of KeyArena that has a capacity of 13,500 seats for most WNBA games.[7]
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In their 24 seasons, the Storm have an all-time regular season record of 419 wins and 385 losses, the fourth-best among active WNBA teams.[8][9] The team qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in 18 seasons and have an all-time record of 34 wins and 26 losses.[8][10] During those playoff runs, the Storm appeared in four WNBA Finals and won the league championship in all four finals.[11] The team also won the inaugural edition of the WNBA Commissioner's Cup, an in-season tournament that debuted in 2021 after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[12][13] The team's players include three-time WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner Lauren Jackson, one-time MVP winner Breanna Stewart, and three-time Sportsmanship Award winner Sue Bird.[14][15] The trio were among eight Storm players named to The W25, a selection of the 25 best players in WNBA history selected for the league's 25th anniversary in 2021.[16]
The Storm made their debut on May 31, 2000,[17] and finished their first season with a 6–26 win–loss record, the worst in the league that year. The team selected Sue Bird with the first pick of the 2002 WNBA draft and finished their third season with a 17–15 record and their first playoff berth, which ended in a loss in the Western Conference Semifinals.[1] The Storm won their first WNBA championship in the 2004 Finals, where they defeated the Connecticut Sun with two wins in three games; it was the first professional sports championship for Seattle since the SuperSonics won the 1979 NBA Finals.[18] The season also marked the start of a ten-year streak of playoff appearances—the longest in WNBA history at the time[19]—but the team were eliminated in the Western Conference Semifinals for five consecutive years from 2005 to 2009.[20] The Storm finished the 2010 regular season as the top seed in the WNBA and tied the league record for most wins in the regular season with a 28–6 record; they won their second championship that year and became the second WNBA team to win a title without a single loss in the playoffs, which culminated in a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Dream.[1][21]
Despite limited appearances for injured star players Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, the team qualified for the playoffs in the following three seasons but never advanced beyond the first round.[22] The Storm failed to qualify for the playoffs in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, but earned the top pick in the subsequent WNBA draft for two consecutive years;[1] Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were chosen in those drafts and both won the Rookie of the Year Award in their debut seasons.[23] The team returned to the playoffs in subsequent years but were again eliminated in the first round; under new head coach Dan Hughes, the Storm won their third championship in 2018 with a three-game shutout of the Washington Mystics.[22] After a second-round exit in the 2019 playoffs—attributed to the absence of Bird and Stewart—the team won their fourth championship against the Las Vegas Aces in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.[1][6] The Storm were eliminated from the 2021 playoffs after one game and the 2022 playoffs in the second round;[10] the team did not qualify for the playoffs in the 2023 season.[24]
Key
- Key to abbreviations
- DNQ – Did not qualify
- Conf. Semis – Conference Semifinals
- Conf. Finals – Conference Finals
- TBD – To be determined
- Key to awards
- COY – Coach of the Year
- DPOY – Defensive Player of the Year
- FMVP – Finals Most Valuable Player
- MIP – Most Improved Player
- MVP – Most Valuable Player
- ROY – Rookie of the Year
- SIX – Sixth Player of the Year
- SPOR – Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award