Of all the potential stories that the 2024-25 WNBA offseason could produce – did anyone expect one involving possible misconduct within an organization?
Subria Whitaker hinted at the possibility that things may have been happening closed doors within the Seattle Storm, but those were dismissed as pure social media hearsay by many WNBA social media users.
One wonders what the attitudes of those same individuals are now that those transgressions have now been cited in at least three sourced reports – one by Annie Costabile at the Chicago Sun-Times and two by Christan Braswell at Circling Seattle Sports.
In a nutshell, the allegations center aroud the possibility of harassment of players by the Storm’s coaching staff during practice and during games – per the Sun-Times report. Costabile also mentioned how a law firm had been hired by the Storm to investigate these claims and that said investigation has been active for at least two weeks.
These findings are compounded by what was revealed by Circling Seattle Sports. Its sources say that at the heart of everything that allegedly went on was not only head coach Noelle Quinn – but also Skylar Diggins-Smith.
CSS mentioned how the veteran star point guard would also profanity-laced tirades and that this style was embraced by the Storm’s coaching staff. When players, per CSS, tried to go to Storm general manager Talisa Rhea about the situation, Rhea and the front office allegedly did nothing.
To say that these are concerning allegations is definitely an understatement. When the 2024 season commenced, the Storm were expected to be one of the primary contenders. And they were – but when a front office creates a Core Four by adding Nneka Ogwumike and Diggins-Smith alongside Jewell Loyd and Ezi Magbegor, one can see why the expectation will be championship or bust.
Instead, the Storm were swept at the hands of, ironically, the Las Vegas Aces.
Speaking of the Aces, there will certainly be plenty of parallels drawn between the Las Vegas transgressions involving Dearica Hamby and this news coming out of Seattle. What binds the Aces and Storm together is that these are two organizations that have been tagged as “class franchises” within the WNBA ecosystem because of the money they invest in facilities.
What came out involving the Aces and Hamby showed us that being a class organization involves more than simply throwing money at shovel-ready buildings. It does not give cheap organizations an excuse to be cheap, but it does reinforce that all aspects of the player experience have to be top-notch – not only those involving on-court matters.
Diggins-Smith being mentioned as having allegedly participated in these profane outbursts is not going to reflect well on her either. Her departures from the Dallas Wings and Phoenix Mercury are well-documented and they were anything but amicable.
She is also 34 years old – and decided to take her talents to Seattle because at this late stage in her career, Diggins-Smith has to be asking herself if her window to win her first championship is closing. It must also be mentioned that both she and Loyd are slated to take part in the Unrivaled league which will launch its inaugural season on January 17.
The obvious layer of this happening within an organization with an all-woman ownership group is especially troubling for the WNBA and let us not even get into why it could be a setback for Black coaches when two have already been let go from other teams (Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream).
The question of questions that has to get asked is what happens to the Storm’s on-court product? That is another aspect of this that differentiates it from what the Aces went through.
Las Vegas’ issue was with one player who eventually was traded to another team in the Los Angeles Sparks. If other players are not seeing eye to eye with the coaching staff or front office, could the Storm quickly be back in the rebuilding phase that they were after Sue Bird’s retirement and Breanna Stewart moving back east to the New York Liberty (where she won another championship this past season).
CSS mentioned that players-only meetings were even conducted – and that those meetings did not include Ogwumike.
This situation involves the team not seeing eye to eye with the coaching staff, the front office looking the other way and the possibility that a hard-edged coaching style may have been rubber-stamped by a star veteran player.
Issues like this typically break up teams and send general managers back to the drawing board. It would be a shame if that is what happened with the Storm, but it may have to be done.
