An inside look into what makes Noelle Quinn the coach she is: Storm assistant coaches share their thoughts
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Since taking over as the head coach for the storied franchise known as the Seattle Storm, former player Noelle Quinn hasn’t had an “easy” go of things as the leader of a WNBA team searching for its fifth title. In the past three seasons alone, the Storm have gone from title contender in Sue Bird’s final season, a rebuild year of sorts last year, and back to what should be a contending group this season as they put things together with a new look roster. That sort of pressure and expectation as the person in charge of a team could break many, as it’s trial by fire for someone who didn’t have head coaching experience previously, but not Quinn. The Torrance, California native has had a steady and calm demeanor throughout it all and has kept the bigger picture of life in mind while doing so. Her coaching staff of Pokey Chatman, Ebony Hoffman, and Perry Huang have seen these seasons and how they could’ve changed Quinn, but it’s clear to them: Noelle is built for this and so much more.
Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn during the 2024 season, so far. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quinn’s rise from player to assistant coach, and now at the helm
For another time, we could sit and look at the story of Noelle Quinn’s basketball career starting at her time with the UCLA Women’s basketball team to being drafted 4th overall in the 2007 draft, her playing career with time on five different WNBA teams, before going from player to assistant coach with the Storm that eventually saw her takeover early into the 2021 season as Dan Hughes retired from his head coaching spot with Seattle. Stepping in for Hughes wasn’t ever going to be an easy feat for Quinn, as his coaching career lasted from 1977 to that point at the end of May in 2021 when he announced his retirement, including the fact that he led the Storm to their third and fourth titles and won WNBA coach of the year honors twice (2001 and 2007). As is often the case in professional sports, Quinn has had to learn through trial by fire as she worked on her head coaching duties during that 2021 season that saw the Storm fall in the second round of the playoffs to a Phoenix Mercury team that went all the way to the WNBA Finals before having to deal with the weight and expectation that came with Sue Bird’s final season in 2022. There was a mountain of expectation for Quinn and that Storm team as Bird had her farewell tour that unfortunately couldn’t end in a title as Seattle fell to the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces. Just a season later came a struggle of a year with a roster that couldn’t get results despite battling hard in nearly every game, ending the 2023 campaign second to last in all the WNBA. Now with a contending squad again as the Storm added big free agent signings Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike plus players like Victoria Vivians, Nika Mühl, and bringing Kiana Williams back, Quinn has that expectation back on her shoulder. Given the circumstances and challenges she’s faced already, Quinn looks primed to handle that pressure as she always has; calmly.
“I had the privilege of coaching Noelle in Russia with Sue [Bird] on that team and she was a student of the game when she played at UCLA, when she played in Russia. Regardless of the different circumstances, her process remains the same: First of all, she’s a savant with the basketball, but I think she has this emotional intelligence that’s unmatched. Sometimes when you’re managing expectations, you’re managing elite players , when you’re managing an organization, it’s the thing that’s needed the most. That’s what the players kind of, you know, they’re like a magnet to that. I think the perspective is always there, and that’s why it’s this even keel with her. Don’t misunderstand me, she can go there when she needs to go there, but we see it all the time, and it’s not in a disrespectful way, it’s just very pointed. I think her communication comes across the same regardless of the situation.”
“The biggest thing I see is her presence, not that you didn’t have a presence before, but now it’s more comfortable with being the face of all this. Before, I saw her when she was a player, at that point it’s more of behind the scenes, I’m going to be that person in the locker room that can tell you know the truth. I can bring along the rookies as well. Maybe she doesn’t necessarily get the limelight, all that, but she’s always on the bench talking. I know she has special relationships with players throughout the league, but even those last few years, she had really good bonds with our vets and some of our younger players. I think from seeing that, her growth in being able to voice her opinions and being able to articulate this has been something to see. Every single year she’s gotten more and more comfortable with just being in front of everybody and talking, being confident with what she’s saying. She’s learned a ton just being in through the fire. Nothing’s better than experience, right? Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. The way she’s gotten her voice is through experience honestly. You don’t necessarily know, Sue’s last year, not every coach is going to be able to go through a superstars retirement, not everybody is gonna go through that to like the complete 180 the next year. Those experiences allow you to shape yourself, shape your coaching philosophy, shape who you are. And it’s not necessarily just a basketball growth, it’s an all encompassing/personal/everything. That’s what you’re seeing, and I think this year, it’s truly getting brought to light. The past couple of years has allowed her to transform into, and that’s not to say there’s not growth even from now, but there’s definitely been a big, big jump from even the first year that she took over midway through the season. I think just her voice and presence amongst the team, everyone’s always respected her. There’s never been a moment where I don’t think anybody’s not respected, I think they respect her knowledge, respect her experience through the game as a player, and I think you’re seeing that this year, because now you have players that have come from other teams that have played against her in past years. Now they’re saying, ‘Oh, this is what coach is about.’ They never knew, and I think we’ve achieved, to the credit of the organization of the Storm that we’ve always kept things tight lipped. You don’t really know that until you get here. I think that’s been really cool to see, is that like they gravitate towards her, the new players, even the returning players really gravitating towards her and just seeing like that growth.”
A true players coach
Quinn understands the ups and downs that the game of basketball can present to a player, as mentioned regarding her playing career and those five different WNBA teams she made stops with, and it’s been a factor in why players want to come to the Storm and the hard fought energy we’ve seen from Seattle since she’s been the head coach. Getting drafted as the fourth overall pick, being a starter, coming off the bench, not playing at all, and even playing overseas in Russia gave Noelle Quinn more than enough playing experience to understand the difficulties and struggles of playing on top of the success and the high points that come with it. Those lessons learned through tough experiences playing the game have given Quinn an eye into what can help her players get out of any sort of struggles that they’re dealing with in the moment and make it easier for her to be able to get her point across, whether that’s about what needs to happen in game or with the systems that are being put into place. Quinn’s staff made it clear that her ability to get across was a big factor in what makes Noelle that coach that she is.
“Her evolvement has been exponential, in terms of her aura. Her aura is confident, yet humble and not knowing of all things so you’re not just preaching at a player. This is a collaboration. She’s collaborating with the players to tell me how you feel, do you think we can do this? Do you feel like works for you? Because of as a player, I was a player too, a coach could tell me to do something and then it doesn’t quite work because my movements are doing something else than what you’re telling me to do. If you want me to do this coverage, how can I do that if I’m going this way? It’s collaborative, it’s poignant, it’s directed. There’s no riddles, there’s no different thought process or I don’t know what she’s talking about/what she’s thinking. We know exactly what she wants, how she wants it and it’s the collaboration with the players that you don’t see quite often in a league where you got a player coach, and now we’re able to talk about some things. It matters, the connectivity, the synergy. It matters with coaching staff as well, we have to be aligned and connected to understand that the message is the same.”
Connectivity
The word “connectivity” is one that has been uttered throughout the franchise since training camp began and remains true at this young point with just five games into the season as the Storm are still working towards firing on all cylinders. Whether that’s remaining locked in on defense, as Quinn coached teams are defensive minded first and it’s typically been a hallmark of their success when she’s been the head coach, or keeping things together as a unit as they navigate this young season as a group, that connectivity will be the key to Seattle’s success if they’re headed to a deep playoff run as is hoped. With new players trying to wipe out habits from previous systems that they’ve played in to get fully familiar and comfortable in these systems with the Storm plus building that chemistry off the court, it was never going to be a full hit the ground running start for Seattle this season especially given how short WNBA training camp is. While media and fans around the country have largely overreacted to the Storm not getting “outstanding” early results, Seattle remained hard at work towards adjusting the issues that were present and building towards that “connectivity. The connection is growing before our eyes, and that “connectivity” across the organization is a key to getting to the promised land.
“This group has competition at the highest form in their brain to compete for a championship. Whether you get to that, only God knows, our our job is to stay healthy for one, to be consistent in what we’re doing defensively and offensively, and to continue to grow because as we gel and the synergy, the chemistry starts to come together, the play in the offense and the connectivity will be so much greater. After only 10 days of a training camp with adding two new pieces, three new pieces to our starting lineup, adding new players from different systems for so long, getting the habitual habits of another system out. You could be at one place for ten years, two different coaches five years apiece, who emphasize two different things and now that’s almost habit norm for you. We’re trying to get them into our habits, and how we want to play the ball and I think that they have picked it up extremely well. Skylar still coming into her own, and Nneka just hitting the ground running like no time was lost, like she’d been here forever. It’s so much harder at the point guard position she has to learn a whole new terminology, there’s so many layers to it, it’s like a seven layer dip. We’ve got our own terminology, coupled with our own defensive terminology.”
Genuinely herself
Following Seattle’s thrilling victory over the Indiana Fever at a sold-out Climate Pledge Arena on May 22nd, star forward Nneka Ogwumike was describing coach Quinn’s temperament and coaching style, saying that she brings “a little bit of that gangster” to which the local media got a kick out of and teammate Jewell Loyd said “they don’t know,” in regards to how the outside world can’t see what Ogwumike was describing with how Quinn coaches. What exactly does bringing a little bit of that “gangster” from LA look like? It isn’t a tough persona or acting like someone that isn’t at her core, but rather the opposite of that: Noelle doesn’t play games, speak in riddles, or leave you with doubt. Quinn is going to be to the point, honest, and true to herself. Whether that’s ensuring that respect and grace are given to those working through a difficult return to form like Skylar Diggins-Smith, making it clear what a player's role is within this team, or when it comes to how she views her position as head coach in a WNBA that’s evolving seemingly every week. Quinn isn’t going to mess around and won’t lead you through a maze to get to the ultimate point, she’s going to bring a genuine feel that players around the league respect her for and it has shown since she’s taken over as head coach of the Storm.
“She doesn’t speak in riddles, no coach speak when she talking to her players, she’s extremely direct. That’s gangster to me, because you’re never going to have a player say ‘I don’t know my role,’ because she’s gonna let you know, whether you like it or not. It’s just in a very respectful, on their level, way. People are hunting the truth, they don’t want to have to figure out what you’re saying, to me that’s ‘gangsta.’ Then every now and then, when she’ gotta through them hands up and do her thing, sometimes I’m the recipient of it and that’s okay too. But no, I think it’s just her approach to things.”
“That ‘gangsta’ means that she does not speak in riddles. She doesn’t speak in riddles, she’s direct, she’s forward, she’s calm but she hits it right on target every single time. To me it’s just the way in which she carries herself to be, she’s got our players back, she’s got our coaches back, she’s got our organization’s back. As you saw the other days, she’s gonna protect her players, in Skylar in particular, Nneka, anybody on our team from any malicious intentful question, conversation, anything. That’s, in my opinion, her “gangsta” is having our players back, regardless, because some coaches wouldn’t even want to touch on it. They’d be like ‘not going there with you,’ but she’s gonna go there with you just to make sure that you understand what’s you’re asking in the totality of women period, coming back from birthing two children and still looking fantastic, looking absolutely fantastic, but just getting the rhythm back. ”
“You know who you are. People are going to push the limits sometimes, whether it’s media, it’s other players, external factors. People are going to push the limits and see where the boundaries are. At some point you just put your foot down, and you don’t let them cross those boundaries, and you can see that with the protection of our players, like with Skylar. From her end, she might not be overly emotional or boisterous in her personality and all that stuff, but she’s not going to stand for certain things, and there’s certain things that are untouchable. The wellbeing of our players, she’ll be the one to determine that, from that end she knows what the limit is, and she’s going to put her foot down, she’s going to set the boundary, what you can touch and can’t touch. Even amongst our players, the players are always going to try to test the boundaries of what they can get away with, on court or off court, whatever it is... Players toe the line and she’s gangsta about it and when she does show it, we’re not going to elaborate on what the gangsta means, but that’s what it is. That’s what it essentially is, is holding those boundaries.”
Keeping the bigger picture in mind
While there should be no doubt that the results on the court and improving the performance of the Storm as a basketball team remains a major factor for what Quinn and her coaching staff are doing, considering it is what they’re hired for after all, it’s been obvious over the time that Noelle has been the head coach that she keeps the bigger picture of life itself at the forefront of her players' minds. Whether it’s preaching the importance of wellness days, sharing with the local media last season that she while roller blade occasionally as her activity during those days, or making sure that the media covering this team can give grace to Skylar Diggins-Smith as she returns to full game form coming off giving birth to her second child, Quinn makes her stance on that clear. There’s importance in this that expands past the game of basketball, and she is going to make sure that you know that, both in talking to the media about player performance or in checking in with her squad. In an age where there’s so much criticism online at any time in sports, plus how these athletes can be consumed by the game that they’re playing, a good mental balance of remaining present in life outside of the game is huge and Quinn is making sure that’s not forgotten as long as she’s around.
“I think she keeps a good pulse on it. Of course, we know why we are working, to get the W’s, but there are those small victories that she totally understands and she’s married to that. She knows the process of winning and the steps it takes, nothing’s gonna deter her from that. What happens is, you see a coach pouring into not just our players, but to us and an organization, it makes it easier to understand that, follow that, and you kind of feel yourself with it. We’re working towards getting those big wins on the other side.”
“It’s huge. Her attribute as a person is that she can connect on a personal level, and the empathy that she shows for players, the compassion that she shows for players because she’s been through it. She’s gone from being a starter, being a bench player, to literally no minutes. She’s experienced everything you can experience in this league, or most of it. Just being able to relate to players and be able to talk to them, understand where their mind is. With the wealth of this league, some things have changed: travels changed obviously, this [Storm Center for Basketball Performance] has changed things a lot. Through her experiences, players can see that, and she makes it a point to connect with players. She makes it a point to have individual meetings, to sit down with them, to connect on things with them, not about basketball. It’s always about personal stuff, and sometimes it’s impromptu, sometimes it’s organized, but I think that’s the organic nature about it. There’s no facade about it. She’s who she is, and she’s genuine about it, and I think the players see that. When the players see that, and they feel the connection, they’re going to want to play harder for you, they’re going to want to execute on both ends of the floor for you, and you’re seeing the results of that. ”
Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn during the 2023 season. (Photos by Liz Wolter)
What’s next?
For Noelle Quinn and her staff with the Seattle Storm, they continue to work forward as we’re just five games into the 2024 WNBA season, with the Storm working every week towards improving within their offensive and defensive systems and finding that “connectivity” that’s been talked about through the franchise. Through the woods (that we know of) in terms of availability for now as Nika Mühl is done with her VISA issues and Nneka Ogwumike is over the hump regarding her ankle injury that saw her miss two games, the Storm are finding some traction as of late as they’ve won two of their last three games which include a late thriller against the Indiana Fever back on the 22nd. The Storm coaching staff will continue to work towards getting their group fully bought in to their systems and in their respective roles, as adjustments and improvements are required over the course of the season in addition to the necessary habits that this group will need once (hopefully) playoff time comes around. That work continues tonight, when the Storm host the Washington Mystics at Climate Pledge Arena with a tipoff time of 6PM PDT, that will be broadcast on 106.7 The Fan, FOX 13+ / Amazon Prime Video - Seattle, MNMT.
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