‘We really left our mark’: Jewell Loyd reflects on return to Seattle

IF THE Las Vegas Aces‘ team bus took the right detour to Sunday’s game against the Seattle Storm, it could pass a mural a couple of blocks northwest of Climate Pledge Arena.

Unveiled in March 2021, months after the Storm won a record-tying fourth WNBA championship, the mural depicts the team’s big three — Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart — wearing the “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name” T-shirts players used for warmups during the 2020 season played in a bubble in Bradenton, Florida.

That’s how Loyd hopes she’ll be remembered in Seattle: a key part of the iconic trio who brought home two titles in three years.

“I don’t think you could look at Seattle and not think of us three, as well as Lauren Jackson, as players who came in as young adults and kind of grew up into mature women,” Loyd told ESPN. “I think that’s really cool to be a part of that.”

Yet Loyd will be on the Aces’ bus Sunday. Her return to Seattle for the first time as a visiting player came much sooner than anyone had expected. After signing a contract extension in 2023 at the end of the Storm’s first season following Bird’s retirement and Stewart’s departure for the New York Liberty in free agency, Loyd helped recruit star free agents Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike. She looked like the bridge between Seattle big threes, hoping to return the Storm to contention.

Instead, after an investigation into Loyd’s offseason complaint alleging bullying and harassment by the Storm coaching staff found no violations, she requested a trade.

But she hopes her accomplishments in Seattle will never be forgotten.

“I think I tried to lay the foundation for what a championship team looks like, a championship player,” she said. “I think that’s the same for me, Stewie and Sue. We all talk about it ourselves. We really left our mark.”

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LOYD’S SPLIT WITH the Storm began in November, when ESPN confirmed a Chicago Sun-Times report that the organization had retained an outside investigator to assess Loyd’s allegations against the Seattle coaching staff, led by Noelle Quinn — a former teammate of Loyd’s who has been head coach since 2021. ESPN subsequently confirmed that Loyd had filed the complaint.

The following month, Seattle released a statement indicating the investigation had been completed without finding any violations. Hours later, the Sun-Times reported and ESPN confirmed that Loyd had requested a trade from the team that drafted her No. 1 out of Notre Dame in 2015.

The Seattle Times later reported that Loyd would have withdrawn her trade request had the team fired Quinn.

In pursuit of what she described as “a fresh start,” Loyd understood she couldn’t control her destination, having signed a two-year extension with the Storm that runs through this season.

“Once the request was made, I didn’t really have a say,” Loyd said. “Everything kind of worked out and I got to a place I wanted to be with people who I know and an organization that is a contender.”

For their part, the Storm organization was willing to send Loyd somewhere she wanted to be, with the Aces at the top of that list thanks to Loyd’s experience playing with Las Vegas stars Chelsea Gray, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young — part of a core, along with Kelsey Plum, that won back-to-back WNBA titles for the Aces in 2022 and 2023 — on the U.S. women’s national team.

“I think we always try to do right by the players if we can, and if there’s a situation that makes sense for us as well,” Seattle GM Talisa Rhea told ESPN. “I feel like that trade kind of accomplished all of those things.”

Plum’s desire to join the Los Angeles Sparks via a sign-and-trade as a core free agent set up a workable three-team framework. Loyd went to the Aces as Plum’s replacement in the starting five, while the Storm were able to land a package of picks and players headlined by this year’s No. 2 overall selection, a pick they used on 19-year-old French post player Dominique Malonga.

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AHEAD OF HER second game with Las Vegas earlier this week in Connecticut, Loyd said she hasn’t been thinking about what her return to Seattle on the visiting side might be like.

“It’s another game for us,” she said. “I’m focused on what we’re trying to do. Obviously, I have family in Seattle as well, so it’s always nice to see family when you can.”

After an off night in her Aces debut, scoring five points on 2-of-10 shooting in a loss at New York, Loyd looked more like her All-Star self against the Sun. She scored 20 points in 21 minutes, making six 3-pointers to match her 2024 season high. On Friday, Loyd made the game-winning 3 in the final seconds to beat the Washington Mystics in her first home game.

In the early going, Loyd is feeling good about how she’s fitting in with a Vegas team that lost in the semifinals last year.

“I think a lot of it is adjustments,” she said. “I think we’re seeing that throughout practice and learning a lot more terminology for me, seeing where I can have my influence on both ends of the floor. I’m in a really good spot. I’m loving the game.”

As for this weekend, in addition to seeing family, Loyd is hoping to visit Molly Moon’s, a Seattle favorite (“a pretty iconic ice cream place,” she said) that she shouted out in her Players Tribune farewell to the Storm.

Long a fan of Molly Moon’s, Loyd’s connection to the local chain deepened when she wore custom shoes to promote autism awareness last season designed by her best friend’s son, Justice Swann, who has autism.

“They’ve always been super supportive, and we shared a nice bond with my shoes,” Loyd said. “They supported me a lot, so maybe go back there.”

Molly Moon’s founder Molly Moon Neitzel attended a game last season with her daughter, who also has autism and took note of Loyd’s shoes and the video describing their meaning. Neitzel plans to be at Sunday’s game — and said she would love to scoop ice cream for Loyd if she makes it to Molly Moon’s.

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WHEN LOYD AND the Aces head back to Las Vegas after Sunday’s game, the mural — painted by local artists Mari Shibuya and Zahyr Lauren — will remain.

So too will Loyd’s legacy of success in Seattle. Bird and longtime guard Tanisha Wright are the two players in Storm history to play more games than Loyd, who ranks third on the team’s all-time scoring list behind Bird and Jackson, who was a three-time MVP.

“She’s a [multitime] champion here and part of Storm history and Storm legacy,” Rhea said. “For me, so much of my time here, Jewell was here and a huge part of our success on the court. I know that she means a lot to the city and to the franchise and what she was able to help us accomplish.”

Seattle forward Alysha Clark, a member of the 2018 and 2020 title teams alongside Loyd before re-signing with the Storm this offseason, highlighted Loyd’s contribution to the team’s championship culture. Clark summed up Loyd’s Seattle legacy as “a champion.”

For her part, Loyd sees the trade as the dividing point in what she envisions will be a two-decade WNBA career, much like Bird’s.

“If you just look at the 10 years of anyone’s career, obviously mine, I think it says that I’ve done a lot of great things on the court,” she said. “I think the biggest impact is probably off-the-court things I’ve done. … Now I’m thinking the next 10 years of my life in general are going to be some of the best years so far.”