The Storm grabbed Doc Brown and Marty McFly, gassed up the Delorean and brought their 2018 selves, straight to the bubble. Eleven games into the season and Seattle is well on their way to proving the pundits’ preseason predictions accurate. Alliteration aside though, the Storm are tearing the league up at the halfway point.
Let’s start with the obvious, as everyone was questioning whether Breanna Stewart would be the same player post-achilles injury. Stewie came out the gate ready to put any doubts to rest. You’d find the weapons of mass destruction, before you find any evidence of her devastating injury. She looks just as sharp as she did the last time we saw her. And we all know what happened the last time Stewie was on a WNBA court. She’s back to her championship form, and that’s bad news for every player that doesn’t wear a green and yellow jersey. If you want to know how Kevin Durant is going to look when he comes back, look at Breanna Stewart highlights. They’re eerily similar. And if he plans to go on a rampage like the one we’re seeing from Stewie, then he just might get those 2018 Stewie results. Spoiler alert: it involves hardware.
Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd are also giving some remnants of deja vu. They’re basically mirroring their 2018 production. Sue is an elder stateswoman of the W, but everybody knows she’s still about that action. And Jewell Loyd is continuing her stellar play, since she first stepped foot in the league. Sue Bird missed last season due to injury and she was eager to get back to it this year. She’s missed a few games this year but it’s been more maintenance than anything. With the condensed season and her team clicking on all cylinders, there’s no need to rush back after tweaking her knee. But when she did get back on the floor, Sue and Jewell put on a show. Trust me when I say, these ladies are trying to bring 2018 back.
When you have a group of veteran players, it may be hard to find motivation, so I get the inclination that the Storm may have felt like their dynasty was put on hiatus. And that’s caused them to start the 2020 season on fire. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stewie, Sue and Co. deemed that whoever won the championship in 2019, was just renting it for a year. And they have no intentions on extending the lease. It’s good to know that this didn’t turn into an “out of sight, out of mind” situation. Because if Seattle is coming at everyone’s neck like this as the odds-on favorite, I can only imagine the carnage, if they had been doubted.
The 2020 WNBA campaign will be remembered for so many reasons. The Storm would like nothing more than to have their names memorialized forever as the champions of the most historic season in league history. They are charging full steam ahead to the finish line. But this can’t possibly be as easy as they are making it look.
