Source: Storm investigating coaches for alleged player mistreatment
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Michael Voepel, ESPN Senior WriterNov 16, 2024, 06:01 PM ET
- Michael Voepel is a senior writer who covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball and other college sports. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
Seattle Storm coaches are being investigated by the organization for alleged player mistreatment, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to ESPN on Saturday.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that the Storm are investigating their coaching staff. According to the report, Seattle has hired a law firm to look into accusations of harassment and bullying by the coaches regarding player performance.
The Storm were 25-15 this season and lost to Las Vegas in the first round of the playoffs. Noelle Quinn just finished her fourth year as Seattle’s head coach. Quinn, a former WNBA player, took over early in the 2021 season when Dan Hughes retired.
Quinn’s assistants this past season were former WNBA player Ebony Hoffman, longtime head coach and assistant Pokey Chatman and Perry Huang. Huang was with the Storm for seven seasons, then left last month to become an assistant to Zach Guthrie for the Los Angeles Lakers‘ G League team.
The Storm have won four WNBA titles, with guard Sue Bird on each of those teams. She retired after the 2022 season, while two-time champion Breanna Stewart also left Seattle for New York in free agency. The Storm were 11-29 in 2023, with guard Jewell Loyd leading the league in scoring at 24.7 points per game.
Seattle brought in veteran free agents Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith for this past season and had a big turnaround in results. Five players averaged in double figures scoring, including Loyd (19.7 points per game), Ogwumike (16.7) and Diggins-Smith (15.1).
But Quinn expressed disappointment with the team’s effort at different points in the season. After being swept by the Aces in the playoffs in September, Quinn talked about the issue again in her postgame news conference.
“I will be better. Our team will be better,” Quinn said then. “Effort will never, ever be a thing for us again.”
Loyd and Diggins-Smith are signed with the Storm for the 2025 season. Ogwumike is a free agent.
ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Kevin Pelton contributed to this story.
