Let’s remember when the Seattle Storm won their first WNBA championship, on this day in 2004 (October 12)
My favorite pro sports team did something that Seattle hadn’t seen at that point since the year I was born: win a championship.
Cassandra Tate of HistoryLink lays it out:
On October 12, 2004, the Seattle Storm wins the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) championship, becoming only the third professional sports team in the city’s history to earn a national title (after the Seattle Metropolitans, who won hockey’s Stanley Cup in 1917, and the Seattle SuperSonics, champions of the National Basketball Association in 1979).
Professional women’s basketball came to Seattle partly as a result of the success of the University of Washington’s women’s basketball team in the mid-1980s through 1990s. The city was one of 12 to be included in the American Basketball League, the first professional women’s league, established in 1995. The Seattle Reign built a small but dedicated base of fans before the team, and the league, folded in December 1998.
The WNBA, established in 1997 as an offshoot of the NBA, awarded Seattle a franchise in 1999. Like other WNBA teams, the Storm plays in the summer, during the NBA off-season, and benefits from media contracts, sponsorships, and advertising arranged through the NBA.
The Storm managed to win only six games during its inaugural season in 2000, ending the year with a dismal 6–26 record. The last-place finish gave the team the right to pick the first player to be drafted for the next season. Coach Lin Dunn chose Lauren Jackson (b. 1981), a tall (6’5”), slender, 19-year-old center from Australia. Both of Jackson’s parents played basketball for various Australian teams. She took up the game herself at age four. She led the Australian team to a silver medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Despite the addition of Jackson — known as “Lo-Jack” to her fans — the Storm continued to struggle during its second season. The team won 10 games but lost 22 and ended the year back in the cellar. With another first-round draft pick, Dunn tapped Suzanne Brigit “Sue” Bird (b. 1980), a standout point guard for the University of Connecticut. Bird (no relation to NBA legend Larry Bird) helped her team win two National Collegiate Athletic Association titles in 2000 and 2002, and was named College Player of the Year in 2002.
With Jackson’s scoring and rebounding and Bird’s playmaking ability, the Storm won 17 games during the 2002 season and made the playoffs for the first time. However, the young team did not yet have the depth it needed for a championship season. It lost to the Los Angeles Sparks in the first round of the playoffs.
The Storm opened its fifth season on a ragged note, winning at home but losing on the road. Some observers think the most important game during the regular season was a slender 65–63 victory over the Sacramento Monarchs on the Monarchs’ home court on July 5, breaking a nine-game losing streak on the road. Lennox sank the winning basket with less than a second left in the game. The victory was the first in what became a six-game winning streak, including three on the road.
The Storm finished the season with the second-best record in the WNBA’s Western Conference and an assured place as the second seed in the Conference playoffs. The team coasted to a win over Minnesota in Game 1 of the first round, despite the fact that Jackson sat out most of the first half because of fouls and Lennox missed all of the second half because of a concussion. Bird suffered a broken nose minutes into Game 2, but the Storm prevailed, 64–54, advancing to the second round, against Sacramento. The Monarchs won the first game of that series, but Seattle took the next two, putting the Storm in the WNBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
Facing the Connecticut Sun on its home court, the Storm lost the series opener, 68–64, but squeaked out a 67–65 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,072 fans at KeyArena in Game 2. Seattle had the home court advantage again for the final game, played on a crisp fall evening in mid-October. Buoyed by another capacity crowd, the Storm overshadowed the Sun (inspiring metaphoric leaps by headline writers around the country), 74–60, giving Seattle its first national championship in 25 years.
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