#Throwback Thursday: Seattle Storm Dunks 15 Years

Yes, the NBA season is underway, and no, we still don’t have a team, but there’s another lineup in town that survived the 2008 buyout and continues to take Seattle by storm. We have to wait until June for their games to restart, but we didn’t want the year to pass without toasting to the Seattle Storm’s just-finished fifteenth season and the history of women behind the franchise. (And until the new season starts, you can find plenty of Storm gear online for all the hoops fans on your holiday list.)

The Seattle Storm (named obviously for our weather) was born in July 1999, a year before its first season, when Lin Dunn, former Purdue University and Portland Power head coach, was named the general manager and head coach of Seattle’s new WNBA team. The WNBA itself was only three years old at the time, and then had 12 teams which expanded to 16 that year with the addition of the Storm and three others. (Today the league is back to 12 teams.)

To prove Seattle’s commitment to women’s basketball in 1999, Dunn and Karen Bryant, the then-senior director of WNBA Operations and an Edmonds native, dribbled a WNBA basketball five and a half miles through downtown Seattle to collect ticket pledges. When they secured 7200 deposits (1700 more than required by the WNBA), the Storm was official.

Storm players enjoy their 2004 WNBA championship victory; photo courtesy of the Seattle Storm

A decade and a half later, the team has swished two WNBA championships–defeating the Connecticut Sun in 2004 and the Atlanta Dream in 2010–under three head coaches: Dunn, Anne Donovan and for the last eight years, Brian Agler. The Storm’s high-profile roster has also kept eyes on Seattle—particularly the Australian Lauren Jackson (who came on in 2001), Sue Bird (who joined in 2002) and Katie Smith (who played for the Storm from 2011-2012). In 2011, all three women were recognized among the top fifteen players in league history, and Jackson has scored the WNBA MVP three times so far—in 2003, 2007 and 2010. Her first time in 2003, she was the first non-American and youngest player ever (then 21) to win. Jackson and Bird are still part of the Storm.

Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Swin Cash celebrate their 2010 WNBA championship win after an undefeated run; photo courtesy of the Seattle Storm

In addition to the team’s impressive record and cast, another highlight of particular local interest was preserving the Storm in Seattle in 2008, when their sibling team, the Sonics, was sold to Oklahoma City. When the Storm was also in danger of leaving, Force 10 Hoops LLC, a group of three Seattle businesswomen (and Storm ticket holders), purchased the women’s team in January 2008. According to the Seattle Storm website, they did so in order to contribute to the community and facilitate the opportunity for female athletes of all levels to compete. The Force 10 name comes from the point on the Beaufort wind scale at which bad weather officially becomes a storm.

The regular Storm season runs from early June to mid September and playoffs wrap up by mid October. The average walk up ticket price is $34, and Storm 360 memberships (their version of season tickets) start at $179 and include 18 games–one preseason, then 17 home games–and priority selection for playoff seats.

Find the Storm’s own timeline with highlights of their last 15 years here.