Sky in the middle of the Storm
Seattle Storm point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith during a preseason game against the Phoenix Mercury on May 7th at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photo by Liz Wolter)
By: Christan Braswell
Seattle, WA - After a drubbing of the now 4-6 Phoenix Mercury, 80-62, the Seattle Storm are winners of five consecutive games for the first time since 2021. In the eye of the Storm is star guard Skylar Diggins-Smith.
She finished with 17 points, four assists, and two stocks in the victory. Playing against her old team in the regular season for the first time, there weren’t any pregame jitters or feelings about her exit from Phoenix.
“No, not really. I like to say I compete against everybody the same way. I think that’s the biggest compliment you can give people in this league is to go as hard as you can every night at everybody, so I don’t discriminate there. Obviously, yeah, that was my old team for four years. The grass is definitely greener for me. I’m just really focused on being here where I’m planted and trying to make sure I’m focused for this role on this team. All my energy is where my feet are planted.”
Just in case there were any misconceptions, it was clear she was ready to move on and embrace the brightness of her future in Seattle.
Through the first five games of the 2024 WNBA season, Diggins-Smith averaged 12 points on 30 percent from the field and 1-for-13 from three point range. Going past the stats would reveal a player who is doing the best she can considering the circumstances. Returning from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child, an adjustment period was expected. Having spent 20-plus months away from the sport she helped rise to the moment it’s currently experiencing, head coach Noelle Quinn demanded that she be shown grace.
“There needs to be respect about the fact that she had two children and hasn’t played in 20 months. She’s not where she will be in Game 4 of the season…She’s not going to come overnight and be who she was 20 months ago and we have to respect that and honor that. I do. As a coach, as an organization we do. So my grace as a coach is to know she’s working her butt off every day. You guys don’t see it. Every single day. 2 children. Not 1, 2. Not many can do that. So the respect has to come and the work. The respect has to come. This is a decorated athlete who’s done amazing things for this league, for women’s basketball, for the world. Give her some grace.””
After Quinn’s emphatic defense of her floor general, a switch flipped and the Diggins-Smith that fans remember setting the league ablaze was back and better than ever in more ways than one. In her last four games, Diggins-Smith is averaging 18 points, 5.6 assists and 2.3 steals. Earlier in the season, there were possessions where she would blow past defenders but couldn’t finish through contact, and that isn’t the case as of late. During her stretch of dominance, Diggins-Smith is tied for second amongst all guards in paint points (8.5). In addition, she’s shooting 58 percent on twos overall. Generating 67.4 percent of her offense from inside the arc, not only is she initiating contact, but she welcomes it.
Seattle Storm point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith driving on the Phoenix Mercury on June 4th at Climate Pledge Arena in Commissioners Cup play. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
While Diggins-Smith is working her inside game, she’s thriving from three-point land. In her last four games, she’s shooting 47 percent on four attempts. All of her shots come within the flow of the offense or via the pull-up. With nearly 40 percent of her threes being unassisted, it shows how quickly she has assimilated within the team’s identity and a level of comfort from behind the arc compared to the first few games of the season.
“I think with the shooting, she’s really been working on her footwork,” Quinn told Circling Seattle Sports. “Marcus [Tibbs] and her have been doing a good job on the day-to-day, just really focused. Her feet were a little different when she came here, so she’s adjusting to that. I think she’s found some comfort in it. That’s not easy to do for a player to tweak something at the top of the season. I think she feels it, she likes it, and she’s comfortable with it. She’s found some success in it and its showing in her numbers.
The other thing is just her getting comfortable with a new system, a new team, teammates, and finding spots where she can be successful. A lot of the early looks she was getting were good looks, but they just weren’t falling. That comes with comfort, game pace, and reps. She’s doing a great job of staying the course, being patient, and doing the work.”
During the preseason, Diggins-Smith said it would take her five to seven games to get familiar with Seattle’s on-court language. The fifth game she spoke on was the first game of the team’s current five-game win streak. Her work in returning to game shape and learning on the fly has helped steer the Storm into the No. 4 spot in ESPN’s WNBA power rankings.
The Path Forward
Diggins-Smith has endured quite the journey over the last six years. In 2018, the former No. 3 overall pick averaged 17.9 points and 6.2 assists, earning back-to-back All-Star appearances with the Dallas Wings. Performing at a level that was expected, Diggins-Smith later revealed that she was pregnant with her first child. She missed the entirety of the 2019 season due to postpartum recovery.
While away from the team, Diggins-Smith took to X/Twitter to express what she felt was a lack of support and resources like access to the team’s practice facility primarily during such a critical time in her life. She also shared that pressure to return to the court from fans and the front office played a part in the postpartum depression she suffered. The treatment she endured in Dallas gave way to Diggins-Smith to look elsewhere to continue her storied career.
Diggins-Smith’s public address had an enormous impact on how postpartum mothers are treated and was key in providing more support and security. The players' latest CBA, ratified in 2020, made international headlines for offering a benefit that's still lacking in many workplaces: guaranteed maternity leave with full pay. State and federal laws offer a minimum standard of protection, but employers are able to offer longer maternity leaves and additional accommodations, as the WNBPA made sure the league did.
Before the start of the 2020 season, Diggins-Smith was traded to the Mercury as part of a sign-and-trade with the Wings. Joining forces with Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner created a “Big 3” that was one of the best when all three were available. Although Griner opted out midway through the 2020 “Wubble” season for mental health reasons, the Mercury still made it to the second round of the playoffs.
Facing seemingly insurmountable odds as one of few mothers in the league’s history as an active player, Diggins-Smith returned to form, averaging 17.7 points and finishing top ten in MVP voting in her first season back in the league.
The following season, Phoenix was projected to be one of the best teams in the league. After going 19-13 in the regular season, they made it to the WNBA Finals and eventually lost to the Chicago Sky. Diggins-Smith averaged 17.7 points per game, making it to the WNBA All-Star Game for a fifth time. She also represented Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics, winning an Olympic gold medal.
The 2022 season for the Mercury presented its fair share of challenges. The team ended up parted ways with head coach Sandy Brondello prior to the start of the season and hired rookie head coach Vanessa Nygaard. Then, Brittney Griner was detained in Russia in February and missed the entire season before returning back to the United States later in the year.
Once again, on paper, Phoenix had one of the best rosters. The team signed key veterans Tina Charles and Diamond DeShields to bolster the roster alongside Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi. Throughout the season, there were clear indications that the team’s chemistry was in question. On May 17, 2022, Taurasi and Diggins-Smith were seen arguing on Phoenix’s bench during the fourth game of the season. Neither player commented on the disagreement, but Phoenix’s then-coach, Vanessa Nygaard, summed it up as playing the game with passion.
After the encounter, Diggins-Smith sat out the Mercury’s next two games. Later during the season, she was named to the WNBA All-Star Game, but Taurasi was not.
Diggins then appeared to take offense to Nygaard’s comments about the All-Star Game not being a true All-Star game “because Diana Taurasi’s not playing.” In a since-deleted tweet, Diggins-Smith replied to a video of Nygaard’s comment with a clown emoji.
While Diggins-Smith averaged 19.7 points per game and made her sixth All-Star appearance, the Mercury went 15-21, barely making the playoffs and losing in the first round. From dealing with the fallout of Griner’s situation to blatant favoritism, the season was over quicker than it started.
Diggins-Smith took a leave of absence from the team to end the 2022 season, later revealing she was pregnant with her second child. She didn’t play during the 2023 season due to what seemed to be both sides stuck at a crossroads on how to proceed.
In 2022, Diggins-Smith told People that she “felt guilty going back [to basketball] so quick” after giving birth.
“Nine weeks after I had [my son], I was in practice,” Diggins-Smith said. “Physically, I felt fine, but I was in this fog that I just didn’t understand what was going on. It was hard for me to explain my emotions. When you go through postpartum depression, you kind of get this feeling like you’re the only one going through this and you don’t really wanna ask for help.”
Even after the new provisions included in the CBA that were supposed to provide security and support for players, Diggins-Smith sounded off (rightfully so) about the lack of just that during her pregnancy and postpartum period while with Phoenix.
A fan took to X/Twitter to express their surprise that the Mercury didn’t wish Diggins-Smith a routine happy birthday on their social feeds.
When she responded to the fan, she dropped quite the bombshell:
Diggins-Smith wrote that she had been locked out of the team’s practice facility and that she couldn’t use the Mercury’s “massage therapists, chiropractor, chefs, strength and conditioning, nutritionist accessibility, etc,” which, “EVERY other player has access to.”
A day after the 2023 season ended, Taurasi was asked by Sport360AZ’s Eliav Gabay if she’d be open to Diggins-Smith returning to Phoenix in 2024.
On February 1st, 2024, Diggins-Smith’s future changed for the better she signed on with Seattle, joining childhood friends and competitors Jewell Loyd and Nneka Ogwumike.
Besides playing with Loyd and Ogwumike, Diggins-Smth had other priorities to meet that should be the standard for a professional athlete.
WNBA players have always accepted less for the betterment of all, whether dealing with subpar working conditions or blatant mistreatment. The days of continuing with the status quo are no more.
Seattle’s new practice facility, The Center for Basketball Performance, was key in recruiting Diggins-Smith.
“I started in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for three years,” she said during her introductory press conference. “We didn’t even have a weight room. You try to grow the game; you try to be positive. It’s kind of hard to criticize it when you’re in it. That’s the only way it’ll get better. I can’t say enough about how important that was for me being a mom times two trying to figure it out every day. Just having that [the facility], it’s very considerate of your time, and thats very important to me. Time with my kids. It all just aligned for me to be able to play with great players. It wasn’t a hard sell for me here.”
As a mother of two and an active professional athlete, time and accessibility with her children were paramount in her search for a new team during free agency. From her purview, boasting a solid, engaged ownership group and front office, the Storm was the only franchise that checked all the boxes.
The success and happiness Diggins-Smith is experiencing was long overdue. The support and nourishment she receives daily from various outlets should’ve been the standard. Lighting a fire under the entire Pacific Northwest with an energy level that only she can generate, that will always be the case.
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