The Seattle Storm are considered to be one of the best Women’s National Basketball League teams around, with the franchise having been able to win a number of titles since being formed.
Having only been created ahead of the 2000 season by Ginger Ackerley and her husband, Barry, the Storm have gone on to literally take the WNBA by storm as they have been one of the most successful franchises in league history.
The franchise have gone on to achieve stardom within the game, as they have been able to win four championships over the years, with their successes having come in 2004, 2010, 2018 and most recently in the 2020 season. Indeed, they are also one of the favorites for many who do online sports betting, with bookmakers having made the franchise one of the favorites to win the 2021 edition of the competition.
If the Seattle Storm are able to achieve a fifth title, they would be able to take their place at the top of the leaderboard for the most titles, as they currently occupy the top spot with the Houston Comets and Minnesota Lynx as each franchise also has four titles each.
With the season already underway and the Seattle Storm showing just why so many predict them to be amongst the favorites, let’s take a look at how they won their previous four championships.
2004 title
The first of the WNBA titles that the Seattle Storm managed to achieve in 2004 could be down to a number of different reasons, although some will have put it down to the arrival of Sue Bird from the 2002 Draft. Bird filled the position at point guard that had been providing franchise problems, whilst Australian star Lauren Jackson continued to build on her impressive performances by showing her own skills when it came to scoring and rebounding.
Unfortunately, 2002 was not to be their year as they reached the playoffs for the first time but were beaten by the Los Angeles Sparks. Nonetheless, 2003 saw Anne Donovan arrive as coach and whilst her first year was disappointing, the Storm took the league by storm in 2004. They posted a then franchise-best 20-14 record that would take them to the playoffs and beat the likes of Minnesota Lynx, Sacramento Monarchs and then beating Connecticut Sun 2-1 in the WNBA Finals.
2010 Championship
Although there were a number of years before the Seattle Storm could win their second WNBA championship, the team regularly featured in the postseason, thus showing plenty of progress and consistency. However, 2010 saw the team finally capture their second title.
The team were virtually unbeatable throughout the campaign as they posted a 28-6 record that had included a 17-0 record at home. Lauren Jackson continued to show her star power and importance to the franchise some several years after being drafted, whilst Brian Agler led them to victory as he was named Coach of the Year.
The Storm beat the Sparks before sweeping past the Phoenix Mercury and the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals.
2018 Championship
The years between their second and third WNBA Championships were not kind to the Seattle Storm, as a number of their key players were continuously injured and unavailable to play. Huge hierarchical shake-ups took place over the years, whilst the 2015 WNBA season provided the franchise with their worst record ever.
Fast forward to 2018 and things started to happen again, as Bird continued to break records whilst Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart both proved to the franchise that they were right to select them as the number one overall pick in each of the drafts.
With a record of 26-8 in 2018, Seattle Storm defeated Mercury in a hard-fought best-of-five-series, before breezing past Washington Mystics in the WNBA Finals.
2020 Championships
Stewart and Bird continued to play key roles for the franchise in the 2020 Championships, despite the latter being injured for much of it. Storm did not lose a single playoff game and beat the top-ranked Las Vegas Aces in three games as they won their fourth WNBA title as Stewart was named the Finals MVP for the second time, having won the award in the 2018 Championship game.
