The Seattle Storm were one of the teams that went into the offseason with a vacancy at head coach after firing Noelle Quinn, and they've found their next person in charge. Sonia Raman has agreed to become the next head coach of the team, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
“NY Liberty assistant Sonia Raman has agreed to a multiyear deal to become the new head coach of the Seattle Storm, sources tell ESPN. Raman makes WNBA history as the first person of Indian-origin to be head coach – after being the first Indian-American woman to be NBA assistant,” Charania wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Raman spent 2020-24 as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies and joined the Liberty last season. When Raman was with the Grizzlies, former head coach Taylor Jenkins had high praise for her and her coaching skills as she headed to the Liberty.
“I know she’s going to bring so much to the Liberty,” Jenkins said. “Her passion for player development, X's and O's, analytics, the way she studied the game back in her college days, at MIT and just having so much success there, bringing success with us in the last couple of years with the Grizzlies. I'm fired up for her.”
Even the Grizzlies players had good things to say, one which included Santi Aldama.
“For her, it's seeing the little stuff,” Aldama said via Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I remember last year she was big on the better passes for better percentage shots. It was just a matter of finding how we could make better percentage passes that lead to better percentage shots.”
If Raman can bring what she learned in the NBA and her one season with the Liberty to the Storm, they should be in great shape for the present and the future.
