The Seattle Storm organization is swirling in drama right now.
This started last Friday, when Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote an article that alleged the Seattle Storm coaching staff is under investigation for alleged player mistreatment.
Costabile’s report appeared to open the floodgates within the Storm locker room, as veteran guard Skylar Diggins-Smith posted Kendrick Lamar lyrics on her Instagram story that conveyed a sense of strife among her teammates and organization.
SDS last night 😴 https://t.co/4LEsos5hrX pic.twitter.com/msSKsdI8l1
— sai (@saisdiary001) November 18, 2024
The drama continued when Beta Basket reporter Roberta Rodrigues released an article on Monday that wrote, “According to two sources, Jewell Loyd would have received a performance-based bonus from Nike as part of her sponsorship deal if she finished the season with an average of 20+ points per game.
“She fell just 0.3 points short, finishing with 19.7 PPG. The perception from those close to Loyd is that [Storm head coach] Noelle Quinn is responsible for her not hitting that benchmark, therefore not earning the additional money,” the article continued.
While Loyd’s agent publicly disputed this report, the fact that Rodrigues felt confident enough in her sources to release such a story indicates that there’s likely some truth here.
In the aftermath of this report and Loyd’s agent’s response, WNBA legend Tina Thompson (who spent the final two seasons of her career in Seattle) made a scathing Instagram post that included a photo writing, “Using your assumed power to harm others is always an attack on yourself. You never win! Your wrong will never be made right. Accept failure and move on!
“Stop being hella lame! It’s super whack!”
It would be tough to gauge what exactly Thompson was talking about if her caption didn’t write, “Sit with that!
“Example: Shooting 36% from the field and 27% from the 3pt is not the coaches fault! It’s simple…be more efficient!
“Basketball analogies are always the best analogies! 👊🏽”.
Those are Jewell Loyd’s stats from the 2024 regular season.
The drama doesn’t end there. Skylar Diggins-Smith — who, at this point, is still Loyd’s teammate in Seattle — commented on the post writing, “A word 🤌🏽”.
(if i wasn’t asleep rn i would tell yall that tina thompson said this and that skylar reposted on her ig story but i’m sleep) pic.twitter.com/Pp0g57fvRE
— ju🐯 ྀི (@juloccd) November 19, 2024
It feels like only a matter of time before another chapter to this ongoing Storm saga will surface.
