tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67877038838707005272008-05-18T01:39:42.546-07:00Sonics Beathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08442396184430452250noreply@blogger.comBlogger284125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-85651550398191484312008-05-17T14:47:00.000-07:002008-05-17T16:10:55.062-07:00

If the future of the WNBA looks anything like today's nationally-televised opener between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury, it will be one heck of a fun ride. Historically, early-season WNBA games are often hard to watch. Even NBA teams take a while to begin clicking, and WNBA head coaches don't have the luxury of having their entire team together for the full month of training

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-75688747972398451902008-05-17T10:48:00.000-07:002008-05-17T10:55:16.735-07:00

For those readers who frequent the blog but not always the homepage (something I've done myself with other Seattle sports teams), I hope you haven't missed our extensive preview coverage this week. The local papers devote one day to a preview section. Online, that doesn't make as much sense, so we spread out the same content over the last week. In sum, it's quite a bit. Storm Preview: Fresh

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-34919720404903622792008-05-16T15:41:00.001-07:002008-05-16T15:47:26.398-07:00

The Seattle Storm got down to its final 12-player roster to start the 2008 season on Friday, releasing guard Doneeka Lewis. Cutting Lewis meant newly-arrived center Florina Pascalau and third-round pick Kimberly Beck earned the last two spots on the Storm's roster as the team went with an extra post player in favor of an extra guard. "Florina got in here late in training camp," said Storm Head

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-35368738971004655192008-05-15T15:31:00.000-07:002008-05-15T15:34:34.697-07:00

The Seattle Storm waived wing Kristen O'Neill Thursday morning, but there was O'Neill on the floor at KeyArena during the Storm's practice later in the day. It was the start of what could be a new role for O'Neill as a practice player this summer, continuing her relationship with the organization. Despite having to make the difficult decision to cut O'Neill, Head Coach Brian Agler would love to

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-71047166094358645052008-05-15T10:09:00.000-07:002008-05-15T10:16:08.253-07:00

Aaron Last/Storm Photos Roster decisions are never easy this time of year, but in the case of Edmonds native and UW product Kristen O'Neill, it's definitely personal. The Storm waived O'Neill this morning, ending her bid to make the team as a training-camp invitee. "Making some of the final cuts is always difficult, but letting Kristen go was an incredibly tough decision," Storm Head Coach

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-22571755869725955862008-05-14T23:23:00.000-07:002008-05-14T23:27:40.748-07:00

Storm Head Coach Brian Agler mentioned Wednesday that some of the scouting the Storm had on newly-signed center Florina Pascalau came from 1150 AM KKNW color analyst Adia Barnes, who has played against Pascalau in Italy, most recently this past winter and spring. I e-mailed Adia for the full scouting report. "She is a talented player. She has good size, nice post moves around the basket,

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-84923791339935450992008-05-14T19:13:00.000-07:002008-05-14T22:46:08.371-07:00

The Seattle Storm added another player for Wednesday's practice. No, not that one. While Lauren Jackson made her 2008 debut, the Storm also brought in a true newcomer, signing 6-4 Romanian center Florina Pascalau as a free agent. Friday's Noon deadline to set final rosters is looming, but the Storm will take a look at Pascalau, whose performance in the Italian League has intrigued the coaching

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-81907423505482766112008-05-14T15:50:00.000-07:002008-05-14T16:00:33.756-07:00

At last, the Storm is complete. Lauren Jackson is out on the floor and if she's jetlagged, it's not really apparent from her play. She's been having a fierce battle with Matt from the practice squad, a 6-8 center who also doubles as a marketing intern for the Sonics and Storm. As you may have read already, the Storm has added Romanian center Florina Pascalau to the training-camp roster, bringing

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-75444337447689441882008-05-14T13:04:00.001-07:002008-05-14T13:17:58.315-07:00

The Storm will be back out greeting fans and spreading the word about the 2008 season on Thursday, teaming up with new WNBA partner McDonald's. Five Storm players - Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Katie Gearlds, Yolanda Griffith and Sheryl Swoopes - will be at the McDonald's on the corner of 5th and Broad across the street from the EMP tomorrow afternoon from 4:30 through 5:30 p.m. The players will greet

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-60405518150344137652008-05-14T09:05:00.001-07:002008-05-14T13:03:48.123-07:00

Yesterday, WNBA.com published the results of the league's annual GM survey. Give it a full look, but here are some Storm-related highlights. - 17% of GMs (2 of 12, presumably) picked the Storm to win the championship. That ties the Storm for second with Phoenix. The GMs placed Los Angeles as the favorite. - Lauren Jackson, with 27%, finished second behind Lisa Leslie in the projected MVP vote.

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-76611787812828723002008-05-13T15:25:00.000-07:002008-05-14T09:02:01.506-07:00

After getting Sue Bird back today, the Storm will at last be at full strength tomorrow, when forward Lauren Jackson is scheduled to be a part of practice. "Lauren arrives tonight," Storm Head Coach Brian Agler said Tuesday. "She's between London and L.A. right now. She'll get in here tonight, get her physical tomorrow. We'll be practicing tomorrow at 2:00, back it up so she can be a part of that

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-38267950352367955532008-05-13T12:52:00.000-07:002008-05-13T13:42:28.694-07:00

Welcome back, Sue Bird. The Storm's All-Star point guard is back on the floor for her first day of practice in 2008. Lauren Jackson is not out here today. The latest I'd heard was Jackson was scheduled to get in last night and undergo her physical this morning, allowing her to begin practicing tomorrow. The Storm started out going against the practice guys, but they are now on the sidelines. On

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-25677559625216463072008-05-13T09:24:00.000-07:002008-05-13T09:45:42.394-07:00

Great story this morning in an unusual source for Storm news. The Everett Herald profiles Storm CEO Karen Bryant, who hails from up north in Edmonds. Veteran writer Rich Mhyre looks at Bryant's journey to her current position and a busy off-season on and off the court. Force 10 L.L.C. Chairperson Anne Levinson talks about Bryant's role in the Storm's growth. "The Storm is a beloved community

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-28759875591702551502008-05-12T20:38:00.000-07:002008-05-12T21:04:07.465-07:00

You can get coffee from some of your favorite Storm players tomorrow as they help serve drinks at three Seattle-area Starbucks locations from 8:30 through 9:30 a.m. Swin Cash and Katie Gearlds will be at the Westlake Center Kiosk (400 Pine Street), Tanisha Wright and Kristen O'Neill will be at University Village (4634 26th Ave. N.E.), and Ashley Robinson and Shyra Ely will be at the Upper

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-62085851840106170562008-05-12T11:57:00.000-07:002008-05-12T16:49:54.257-07:00

The new Storm radio spots made their debut during the 1150 AM KKNW broadcast of Saturday's preseason game and will begin hitting the Seattle airwaves this week. Here's what you can look forward to hearing. - "Competition" Yolanda Griffith and Sheryl Swoopes talk about the difficulty learning to play with their new Storm teammates instead of against them. - "Game Moments" - Cash Swin Cash

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-69557560170522233232008-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:002008-05-11T10:32:20.638-07:00

On behalf of the Storm organization, a Happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers out there. The Chicago Tribune did a feature today on motherhood in the WNBA, and the Storm now has two of the league's most prominent mothers in Yolanda Griffith and Sheryl Swoopes. Naturally, mothers have played a key role in the lives of the Storm players, but maybe none more so than for Swin Cash and her mother

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-48607488759164236762008-05-10T10:33:00.000-07:002008-05-10T10:50:25.469-07:00

Congratulations to Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and their Spartak teammates and coaches. With a remarkable Game 4 performance on the road, Spartak claimed its second straight Russian Superleague Championship, defeating CSKA Moscow 101-63 in a game that was all but decided by halftime. As you might expect, Jackson powered the Spartak offense, scoring 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting and grabbing five

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-57888833480951590622008-05-09T16:45:00.000-07:002008-05-09T17:05:29.172-07:00

The Seattle Storm wraps up the preseason tomorrow, hosting the Indiana Fever at KeyArena (7:00 p.m., 1150 AM KKNW, ), and Storm Head Coach Brian Agler will be keeping an eye on the competition for the final couple of spots on the roster. Agler indicated after Friday's practice at the Key that the Storm will be able to go with a 12-player roster now that Janell Burse is sitting out the season,

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-71386244880229128082008-05-09T09:46:00.001-07:002008-05-09T10:28:16.058-07:00

Reclaiming home-court advantage and moving within a game of victory in the Russian Superleague Finals, Spartak earned a 95-81 victory Friday at CSKA Moscow. Spartak blew the game open with a 31-20 advantage in the third quarter and held on for the win. CSKA's powerful frontcourt limited Lauren Jackson to nine points and four boards, but her teammates took advantage of the defensive attention

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-70455750862125287162008-05-09T09:32:00.000-07:002008-05-09T10:47:04.113-07:00

Big news from the Storm Coaching Network today, as Semeka Randall has been named the head coach at Ohio University. Randall, who hails from Cleveland, had been an assistant at Cleveland State during her playing career and later moved on to Michigan State and most recently one season at West Virginia. This is her first head-coaching position and she becomes the first member of the Storm Coaching

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-88822535219588140292008-05-08T17:13:00.000-07:002008-05-09T18:51:17.068-07:00

After Thursday's practice at KeyArena, Head Coach Brian Agler and the rest of the coaching staff were presented with a difficult task. They had to inform rookies Natalie Doma and Allie Quigley that they were being waived after spending two and a half weeks in training camp with the Storm. "This is probably the toughest thing about our job is to go through decisions like that, because those two

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-10545269299053060622008-05-08T16:12:00.000-07:002008-05-08T16:17:27.882-07:00

WNBA.com is going team-by-team on a daily basis to preview the upcoming 2008 season, and today it is the Storm's turn. With the amount of turnover that has taken place, there will be a very different Storm team on the KeyArena floor this season. Seattle has tagged this team as "The Perfect Storm," boasting the team's combined 25 WNBA All-Star appearances, nine Olympic Medals and 10 WNBA

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-70087947502930940352008-05-08T13:11:00.000-07:002008-05-08T16:18:25.504-07:00

The Storm has returned to KeyArena for the last two days of practice before Saturday's preseason finale here against the Indiana Fever. Tanisha Wright has arrived in camp to rejoin the team. After playing against the practice squad, now the Storm is scrimmaging against each other. Wright, Doneeka Lewis, Katie Gearlds, Shyra Ely and Yolanda Griffith are playing for the Black team. Kimberly Beck,

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-72757502946062376012008-05-07T17:30:00.000-07:002008-05-08T09:45:25.979-07:00

First off, I hope everybody is enjoying the relaunched storm.wnba.com, with a new look that extends to this blog. A lot of hard work went on behind the scenes to refresh the Web site. Our Web Producer, Tony Nhoksayakham, deserves a lot of credit for his hard work to make the redesign happen. Alright, let's talk roster, since that seems to be the main topic of discussion recently on the Internets

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6787703883870700527.post-66401619719331176692008-05-06T13:51:00.000-07:002008-05-06T18:38:01.694-07:00

Aaron Last/Storm Photos As we've been let into practice, the Storm is going 5-on-5 against the practice squad. On the floor are Doneeka Lewis, Sheryl Swoopes, Swin Cash, Shyra Ely and Ashley Robinson. Yolanda Griffith is on the sidelines and the Storm's training staff was working with her. Coach Agler is a bit frustrated about the team's execution on offense early in this session following

Kevin Peltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14687582294229324412noreply@blogger.com