The Seattle Storm has proven throughout its 25-year history that a lottery pick is something to celebrate. This year, it’s also a selling point.
The Storm first landed among the Top 4 picks in the draft in 2001, picking Australian champion power forward and future Basketball Hall of Famer Lauren Jackson at No. 1 overall. The next year, with the No. 1 pick in hand once again, the Storm selected the University of Connecticut’s Sue Bird.
The team built around Bird and Jackson to win WNBA titles in 2004 and 2010. When lulls followed, the Storm took Shekinna Stricklen second overall in 2012 and traded her for a No. 3 pick in 2015, when it took Notre Dame’s Jewell Loyd first overall and Shekinna Stricklen and UConn’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis third. The next year, it took UConn star Breanna Stewart at No. 1 and laid the groundwork for league Storm WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020.
“Anytime you’re in a top-four pick, the quality of talent coming out of college is so high, and the quality of talent outside the U.S. is so high [that] you are invariably looking at someone who can change the direction of your franchise or amplify the direction of your franchise,” said Lisa Brummel, co-owner of the Seattle Storm along with Dawn Trudeau and Ginny Gilder.
With Bird joining the Storm’s ownership team in 2024 and being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, a trade for Loyd in January finds the team with a lottery pick for the first time since 2016—this time choosing No. 2. Shortly after the trade, it became clear that Storm stars including WNBA Champion and nine-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike, six-time All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith, WNBA Champion and All-Star Ezi Magbegor, and 2024 European Player of the Year and Olympic silver medalist Gabby Williams would all return in 2025.
That put the team in a mood to celebrate, While the pick is being made at The Shed at Hudson Yards on April 14, the Storm has invited fans out to Queen Anne Beer Hall just about eight blocks from the team’s home at Seattle’s climate pledge arena to watch the selection live. As he has for the NFL’s Seahawks, baseball’s Mariners, and soccer’s Sounders, DJ Blast is providing the hip-hop and Afrobeat soundtrack, while new Storm in-game host Angelica Salem (who pulls similar duties for the NHL’s Kraken and women’s soccer’s Reign) reintroduces herself to fans.
