Denver Nuggets point guard Isaiah Thomas will get his basketball fix anytime and at any place. As a Seattle native, the woes from losing the SuperSonics is something that still stings, but he won't let those who say the city needs a professional team forget about the Seattle Storm of the WNBA.
“I gotta say, as exciting as it is to have the Storm making playoff noise — I’m worried that everyone’s not on the same page,” Thomas wrote in a personal piece for The Players' Tribune. “For a while now, I’ve been hearing something that bothers me. It’s when people say things like, ‘There’s no basketball in Seattle anymore.' Or, like, ‘We need pro basketball back in Seattle.' They’re talking about how the Sonics are gone. I get that. But I can’t help but hear something else, too: They’re forgetting about the Storm.”
While the Sonics did hang a banner during their lone championship in 1979, it is the Storm who has another two hanging alongside it on the rafters of the iconic Key Arena.
The Storm has been a WNBA franchise since 2000, quickly reaching its first title in 2004, and consequently another in 2010, both under one of the most dominant players of its era, the now-retired Aussie center Lauren Jackson.
“So when I see people overlooking, or flat-out not recognizing, the Storm as Seattle’s elite pro hoops team, it gets me fired up,” Thomas continued. “Because that’s a mindset that’s about more than just the Storm as one team. It’s a disrespect for the entire game of women’s basketball — and it’s a problem that I feel like we shouldn’t ignore. To put it really simple: If you don’t respect women’s basketball, you’re a joke. You’re a joke, man.”
Thomas has been one of multiple NBA players to put the Seattle area on the map, including others like Jamal Crawford, Zach LaVine, and Markelle Fultz — now he's doing the same for the women's game, as the Storm play an all-or-nothing Game 5 against the Phoenix Mercury tonight for the chance to reach the WNBA Finals once more.
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