Let’s remember when the Seattle Storm drafted Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, on this day in 2001 and 2002 (April 20)
Man, it has been a rough week for the Seattle Storm, with their very best player suffering a season-killing injury overseas and their head coach being diagnosed with cancer. Still, they’re going into the WNBA season defending champions and that can’t be taken away. Today, is a good day to look back at two of the best days in the franchise’s history, when they were able to have the number one overall pick in two consecutive drafts (it happened again several years later, when they drafted Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart first overall in 2015 and 2016).
Jackson was a 6'5" center whose Wikipedia page says:
Lauren is the most famous basketball player in Australia, a position she reached by 2003.[4][5][8][29] Prior to this, Australia’s most famous player was Michelle Timms, Australia’s first player of either gender to play internationally.[5][8] She was recognised as one of the world’s best basketball players by the time she was 21.[30] She has been described as Australia’s answer to Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neal,[31] and the best female basketball player in the world.[11][32] She has said regarding being the best female basketball player in the world: “I don’t really think about it. Nobody really talks to me like that. It’s not something I’m conscious of. My family and people who have known me all my life, they see me for who I am, and crack open a beer or a bottle of wine with me. They know I have to train, but the rest of it is really laid-back.”
Jackson helped win two championships with the Storm before having to retire in 2012 due to injuries, though her number was retired a few years later.
Bird is indefatigable. She was with the Storm for all three championships and is going into her seventeenth season this year. She’s the best point guard the league has ever seen.
Some of her accomplishments, again, per Wikipedia:
Bird has won three WNBA championships (2004, 2010, 2018), four Olympic gold medals, (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016), two NCAA Championships (2000 and 2002 with UConn), and four FIBA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018) — making her one of only 11 women to attain all four accolades. She is also a five-time EuroLeague Champion (2007–2010, 2013)[3] She has also been selected to eleven WNBA All-Star teams and eight All-WNBA teams. In 2011, she was voted by fans as one of the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of All Time and was voted into the WNBA Top 20@20 as one of the league’s Top 20 Players of All Time.
So yeah, they had a couple of great 4/20s, in 2001 and 2002.
