Seattle Storm

The WNBA announced Breanna Stewart as its 2018 MVP on Sunday.

The Seattle Storm forward was the first overall pick of the 2016 draft and has become a franchise cornerstone. She averaged 21.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game during the regular season.

“It feels really good to win the MVP,” Stewart said, per Percy Allen of the Seattle Times. “But it feels even better to be back in this type of environment and in this type of groove if you know what I mean.

“I’m happiest when I’m winning and doing everything I can to consistently get these wins and to leave it all on the court and show that I’m the best one out there.”

The Storm went 26-8 during the regular season, earning the top seed in the playoffs. They open their playoff matchup Sunday against the Phoenix Mercury.

Seattle has had four MVPs. Lauren Jackson won the award three times, and Stewart captured the other. Only the Los Angeles Sparks and now-defunct Houston Comets have more MVPs in WNBA history.

Stewart was a three-time National Player of the Year at Connecticut and won four straight NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards. 

Power is taking control of your narrative. Power is telling your story to the world in hopes it can begin to help heal not just yourself but hundreds of thousands of people you may never meet. Breanna Stewart, forward for the WNBA's Seattle Storm, has done just that, courageously sharing her trauma of being molested from ages 9 through 11.

I know many young female athletes are listening. Many may have suffered for years like Breanna did. They are watching Breanna not only survive but continue to thrive. Most of all, they are beginning to understand that vulnerability did not kill her; it is helping her live, authentically and bravely, and begin the journey of trying to become whole again.

That is no small feat. Every time Breanna tells her story, she relives her trauma. Trauma is not something of which you can permanently rid yourself. In her essay last October, Breanna herself even said telling her story might have been one of the most difficult things she may ever do.

But her commitment to telling her story in spite of those challenges is not just inspiring but pioneering. She was one of the first female athletes to speak not even a month after #MeToo spread like wildfire across social media. Women athletes already carry significant burdens that their male counterparts do not, like stigma and pay inequality. Standing up to those issues is difficult, professionally and personally. Being one of the first female athletes to discuss sexual abuse is groundbreaking and incredibly important.

I believe Breanna's impact will last long after her illustrious basketball career, which includes winning a gold medal for Team USA and four national championships for Connecticut. She will be an encouraging example for young female athletes who feel powerless to speak up. She will be the living, breathing example for young women of what it looks like in the "after'': that period of time, often for the rest of your life, after declaring yourself a survivor.

The "after'' looks different for every survivor. It is a journey no one can define except the person who has endured the trauma. I don't know the shapes and depths that Breanna's healing will take, but I do know she is committed to that journey. Young girls may look at her—gliding down the court, full speed ahead—with abandon and think: May I live my life with as much strength and courage as Breanna in my own pursuit of wholeness. 

Tarana Burke is a civil rights activist from NYC who founded the Me Too movement. Follow her on Twitter @TaranaBurke.

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Check out more conversation-starters on the B/R POWER 50 Speak Up list:

1. Aly Raisman
2. LeBron James
3. Last Men Kneeling
4. Pop & Kerr
5. Adam Rippon
6. Kevin Love
7. Breanna Stewart
8. Josh Rosen
9. Vivek Ranadive
10. Enes Kanter

Explore the B/R POWER 50, a list of the most influential people in sports culture right now >>

It was an unforgettable scene: a born-and-bred New York film influencer and a future Seattle basketball legend chopping it up on the Coney Island courts. Raining threes, rolling cameras, spinning ferris wheel. 

Except this wasn’t 1998, and Spike Lee was busy finishing his new film. Ray Allen was nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, there was hardly a man in sight. 

Here we had music-video director Va$htie and Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd powering Bleacher Report’s 2018 #BRMovies package with a 20th-anniversary transformation of He Got Game—one of our favorite sports movies of all time—into She Got Game.

Because right here, in this very moment, we can all agree that basketball, movies and women rule. And for all the fun B/R has with sports and culture every day, this time we decided to go all-in. You already know Jesus Shuttlesworth; now is the time for Faith Mothershed.

Of course, the short film above is really a reimagined trailer. But to make a three-minute movie preview (even a fake one) still takes an army—and in this case it was an army of 70-plus people...95 percent of whom were women. 

With locations ranging from the B/R NYC office to a reinvented Big State office to our reimagined Shuttlesworth family apartment complex, the #BRMovies team made She Got Game just for you.  

Asking an athlete to become a movie star overnight is no small feat. But Jewell worked with an acting coach and showed a range of on-screen emotion you’re more likely to see from Rosario Dawson than a former No. 1 overall WNBA pick. (Click here to read more from Jewell IRL and watch a behind-the-scenes video.)

Bringing everything into focus were B/R’s own writer/supervising producer Karin Hammerberg and producer Vanessa Casal-Onate, plus cinematographer Christine Ng, whose credits include shooting Lee’s own refreshed Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It and the Emmy-nominated HBO film Everything Is Copy. (Scroll down to meet the rest of our cast and crew.)

We wish all production crews—for three-minute videos, two-hour films and five-season Netflix shows—could be more representative of society. (And that change is underway.) We wish more sports fans—for one-minute highlights, two-hour games and the entire WNBA season ahead—would follow female athletes. (And we’re trying hard to make that happen, but we’ll try harder every day.)

Jesus Shuttlesworth himself once said you’ve got to try to shake things up: “Basketball is like poetry in motion. Cross the guy to the left, take him back to the right, he's fallin' back, then just J right in his face. Then you look at him and say, ‘What?’”

So we’ve got faith. Faith that She Got Game represents its own little part of ongoing movements, from filmmaking to sports culture and society—and the powerful places in between. We hope you’ll enjoy our new favorite would-be sequel (and spot every Easter egg), plus posters from more sports movie reboots you deserve, then share your favorites with the hashtag #BRMovies.

Thanks for watching,

Courtney Andrialis-Vincent
Senior Director, Premium Video
Bleacher Report   

Faith Mothershed	Jewell Loyd
Mom	Yolonda Ross (The Chi)
Young Faith	Kayciblu Wright
Big State Coach	Catherine A. Callahan (Billions)
Boro State Coach	Lin Tucci (Orange Is the New Black)
HS Coach	Rich Reisman
WNBA Player	Cappie Pondexter
Ros Gold-Onwude	as herself
Shaquille O'Neal	as himself
Candace Parker	as herself
Markelle Fultz	as himself
Young M.A	as herself
Filayyyy	Jesse Jones
Ebro	as himself
Michael Wilbon	as himself
Tony Kornheiser	as himself
Alexis Morgan	as herself
Va$htie Kola	as herself
Rachel Nichols	as herself
Lance Fresh	as himself
Omar Raja	as himself
Susan Price Thomas	as herself
Megan Ryte	as herself
Bobbito Garcia	as himself
Director	Va$htie Kola
Writer	Karin Hammerberg
Supervising Producer	Karin Hammerberg
Producer	Vanessa Casal-Onate
Executive Producer	Courtney Andrialis-Vincent
Director of Photography	Christine Ng
Editor	Mike Kattenburg
Editor	Craig Cobb
1st Asst Director/Production Mgr	Alexia Oldini
2nd Assistant Director	Dayna Schutz
Casting Director	Stephen Vincent
Camera Operator	Janice Min
1st Assistant Camera	Cai Hall
2nd Asst. Cam/Digital Imaging Tech	Neicy McFadden
Production Designer	Jimena Azula
Set Dresser	Rocio Gimenez
Set Dresser	Emily Chomuik
Set Dresser	Lauren Nester
Makeup	Tai Lotson
Hair	Eric Williams
Costume Design	Rose Garcia
Wardrobe Assistant	Missy DiPiero
Gaffer	Maria Cabra
Grip	Natalia Majette
Electric	Anna Cocuzzo
Grip	Moe Larena
Flex/Swing	Julia Gowesky
Sound Mixer	Sarah Myers
Composer	Patrick Noth
Boom Operator	Hayley Wagner
Music Mix	Mike Navarro
Sound Design	Matt O'Connor
Colorist	Sage Velastegui
Creative Manager, Post Production	Fred Widland
Creative Director	Lance Becker
Graphics	Jessica Dorricott
Graphics	Kate Strassman
Junior Editor	Scott Owsley
Quality Control	Gracie Leavitt
Quality Control	Erica Patten
Quality Control	Susan Turek
Production Assistant	Hannah Sheinkopf
Production Assistant	Claire Holl
Production Assistant	Lauren Rossi
Production Assistant	Rhiannon Collins
Production Assistant	Ana Turner
Production Assistant	Janill Urbino
Production Assistant	Jake Marshall
Production Assistant	Jonathan Bound

The star of B/R's She Got Game—a twist on the 1998 Spike Lee classic He Got Game—is a fan of the Jesus Shuttlesworth flick. But Jewell Loyd admits it's not her favorite sports movie. That would be Space Jam.

"To me, that's the only movie that really shows the respect between the women's game and the men's," says the Michael Jordan-era Illinois native. "Lola Bunny comes in and is like the feminine ideal, but she's getting buckets. When you see that you're like, Man, girls can do this too! It's a small snippet of what can be, and that pushes things."

So far the quest for parity has been a big part of Loyd's career. That career caught fire as she left Notre Dame early to become the No. 1 pick in the 2015 WNBA draft, and it has continued strong, with the now-24-year-old receiving mentorship from Kobe Bryant and Seattle Storm teammate Sue Bird.

At Notre Dame, fans honored Loyd with the nickname "Gold Mamba," which she earned for writing Kobe quotes on her kicks—and draining buckets. After an unlikely Twitter follow from the Black Mamba in 2014—she got a few of her DM'd basketball questions answered—Loyd, a lifelong Lakers fan, became one of Bryant's protegees. Though she admits at times his advice can be frustrating.

Way to play today #rookie #wnba #MambaJewell https://t.co/IY8Mst8rem

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) June 15, 2015

"'Keep it simple,' that's it?" Loyd says, laughing. "That's how you got to have two jerseys hanging in the rafters, just keeping it simple? He's like, 'Yeah. People overcomplicate things, but basketball's a very simple game.'"

She's trying to bring those fundamentals to the Storm. Loyd won Rookie of the Year in 2015 and has increased her shooting percentage—especially from the three-point line—each year. But Loyd's career-high 17.7 points per game last season weren't enough to keep the team from losing in the first round of the WNBA playoffs for the second year in a row. She's hoping this will be the Storm's year, because, fittingly, her goals are simple: "I always wanted to win a WNBA championship, and I always wanted to win a gold medal." She began the latter project in April at Team USA training camp. 

On and off the court, the former film major is just trying to get used to life in front of the camera. "Even now, I basically don't think I've made it," she says. "It hasn't actually hit me yet that I'm verified on Twitter. Like, dang."

Before filming began on She Got Game, Loyd shared an insider's perspective on what it's like to play in the WNBA, what Twitter trolls don't understand about the relationship between the men's and women's games and why she thinks the league is ready for the spotlight.

    

Bleacher Report: Do you think some of the excitement around the NCAA women's tournament will percolate into the WNBA season?

Jewell Loyd: It was great for women's basketball—this Final Four was just amazing. This is what our game is like, and now everyone can see it. All these great NBA players retweeting [video of Arike Ogunbowale's buzzer-beater]...she is basically, like, famous now. It shouldn't be that complicated to promote the game because we have so many different outlets, like social media, we can use—someone just has to be motivated to use them.

These kinds of games happen all the time overseas, but no one has footage. They happen all the time in the WNBA, but no one really sees them because they're not often on ESPN. This is what we've been trying to say: These games are competitive. We can play just as well as the guys. Games are even more competitive, in a sense. The last couple WNBA Finals have been unreal. The rivalry between Minnesota and L.A. is the closest thing we have to the Celtics and the Lakers, right?

     

B/R: Are there downsides to promoting the women's game on social media, though?

Loyd: There are always going to be people who say, "Oh, go make me a sandwich." That's, like, the thing on Twitter. But then you have Marina Mabrey, who just tweeted for everyone who hates women's basketball to go make her a sandwich. Now, it's an inside joke.

    

B/R: How can we get people to stop thinking that way?

Loyd: The biggest difference between women's sports and men's sports is the coverage—how they're portrayed. I've never heard of anyone who's actually watched a women's game and come away saying, "Oh, man, this is the worst thing ever." That doesn't happen. Instead, they say, "Man, that was an amazing game." They don't see the players as women athletes—they just see them as great athletes.

That's the core of it: getting people not to think, "Wow, here's a woman who can dunk," but instead, "Wow, this is a great athlete." Like, yeah, she has a 30-inch vertical and she's athletic—why would she not be dunking? No one says, "Man, he's dunking!" She's 6'4" and he's 6'4"; they can both dunk. It's a no-brainer.

B/R: Professional men's basketball players, though, seem to have a lot of respect for what you do.

Loyd: Sue [Bird] was talking about how, at the Olympics, it's not like, "OK, women's team on this side, guy's team on this side." They were basically best friends. It really is like a brother-and-sister kind of relationship. That's not really known. Instead it's almost like people think that when guys talk about women's sports they're just doing it because they have to or they're getting paid to. No. Kyrie [Irving] is saying he learns from Sue because he actually knows Sue. He just respects game.

     

B/R: Are there NBA players you learn from besides Kobe?

Loyd: I'm actually really close with Kyrie. He's friends with Sue, and he came to Seattle to watch a couple games. I had a question and so I was like, "Hey, Sue, do you think Kyrie would hit me back?" And she was like, "Yeah, he's cool." So I hit him with a question, asking, "What do you do to work on your floater?" After that we just started talking.

     

B/R: What do you want to see change about the WNBA?

Loyd: My brother, if he sees me struggling, he's gonna find ways to make things better for me. So if we're the sister league of the NBA, there are a lot more things that the NBA could help us with. Everything the NBA has, the WNBA should have. If there's a G League for the guys, there should be a G League for the girls. The league only has 12 teams, the roster spots are short—so what do you do with all the girls who are really WNBA-caliber players? We lose a lot of them overseas, and then no one stateside hears about them.

Plus, you're not making that much money in the WNBA. Overseas there are girls making twice as much as Diana Taurasi—she's only making, what, $115,000 in the league with her max contract—and they'd never play in the WNBA. Are they better than her? No, but the market...it's complicated [laughs].

     

B/R: What is the culture like around women's basketball when you're playing overseas?

Loyd: You're treated like you're an NBA player. There's almost even more respect. You're never worried that no one's going to be at your game. [The Storm] have played in D.C. and it's, like, an empty gym. But not because they're not good! It's just that no one comes out. You have [Elena] Delle Donne! An MVP, and no one wants to see her? Overseas if she comes to a city for a day, the airports are packed with people just wanting to take pictures of her. What's the difference? The respect level for women's sports.

We're treated like royalty overseas, and then when you come here…the WNBA is the best league, organization-wise, with the best players in the world. But you see Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi—like, the greatest to ever play the game, winning all these gold medals—and they're not even making half of what an NBA player makes. And they're not getting respected, either! Here, you're constantly fighting the battle of, like, I am the greatest. And people are just like, "You're not the NBA."

B/R: Despite all the issues you're talking about with the WNBA, you decided to leave Notre Dame early to go pro after your junior year. You've spoken about how your struggle with dyslexia made being a student-athlete particularly difficult. Why do you think it's important to talk about this as an athlete?

Loyd: Being an athlete, you're supposed to be tough. If I'm a fan, I don't want to see you at your worst. But people forget we're just as human as everyone else. Looking back at my journey at Notre Dame, my friends know me as a person who's super friendly and joking around. But in school, I just would sit in a room, totally isolated. I never felt like I connected to anyone. I obviously joke around about it now, but I had basically the three worst things you could have going to Notre Dame: I was a black student-athlete, I had a learning disability, and I was never in class.

I felt like a burden to the teachers. I lost my appetite, and I would do extra workouts just to feel the pain. We weighed in once a week, and because I wasn't eating, I was always underweight. The trainer would say, "Go take a protein shake and chug it so you can make weight," when that's basically the unhealthiest thing you can do. That anxiety that I had around having to make a certain weight and look a certain way…

It's a hard situation in which to be successful, and obviously there are kids that do it. But they tell athletes, "Hey, I need you at 100 percent for us to win this game. In your best shape and mentally ready." You're like, "OK, I can do that. Practice, film, all that stuff." Then the teachers say, "Hey, I need you at 100 percent to pass this test." But I'm not even there. How can I be great at two things?

At the time, I didn't really realize I was going through anything. I didn't want to talk to anyone because I didn't feel like anyone knew me. If I would have said something, maybe my objective for leaving would have been different. Now I go back to Notre Dame, and it's not that I totally hate it, but I feel that anxiety and depression again every time I'm on that campus. I don't think about us going to Final Fours.

B/R: Why did you wait until now to share your experience? Why do you think more female athletes haven't come forward about their mental health issues?

Loyd: If I'm getting criticized all the time about being a woman that plays basketball, why would I tell you I struggled with depression so now I can get criticized for that? So I can get sympathy? So I can get some new fans just because I told my story? Like, no, you should have been a fan before—we don't want a sympathy vote. That's a lot of it.

But to grow as a person, you have to be vulnerable. You have to be able to open up and tell your story so that someone else can open up and tell their story. You hope someone will think, "I had those same symptoms—maybe I should go get checked out."

     

B/R: With the Storm, do you feel like you have a stronger support system?

Loyd: The Storm has the best organization by far. They support all their athletes off the court and on the court, no questions asked. Plus, our team is super close. We hang out every day. If you wanna do something or go somewhere, you're not going by yourself. We went whale watching—random stuff, it doesn't matter. That's rare to find on any team.

Stewie [Breanna Stewart] or Sue and I go play pickup on Fridays in Bellevue. It's Sue Bird, and still, when she makes a shot, [the guys there] are like, "WOW, you made a jump shot!" They just don't put two and two together. They think a girl should not be able to do this. They're amazed at a girl scoring on a guy, instead of being like, "She just did a great move." Sue is like, "I don't understand. What else do I have to do to show you that I can play basketball?" If she has to deal with this, then we're really struggling. It's just crazy to think about: She's been playing in the league for 15 years. Why would she not be able to make a jump shot?

That's our motivation: Play for Sue, you know? I'm trying to give Sue one more championship. Not saying that she's not going to play next year. Her body's like a 20-year-old's. She's probably going to play longer than me. But I think it's time. Everyone's ready. The league is getting so good, it's crazy—but so are we. Let's battle for it.

Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart described being molested as a child by an unnamed man in a first-person article published at the Players' Tribune on Monday.

"I don't know how to say this part. I haven't told many people," Stewart wrote. "I'm not the most vulnerable person—I don't talk about my feelings much—so this is uncomfortable. I was molested for years."

Stewart, 23, said the abuse began when she was 9 years old and continued for two years. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft and one of the most decorated women's college basketball players in history, Stewart said basketball was her refuge during the years of abuse:

"I'd only been playing basketball for two years at that point—community leagues and AAU. My parents had put me in the sport just to keep me busy. I was a kid with a lot of free time and nothing to do. Eventually, nobody had to make me go. I wanted to play. Basketball became a sort of safe space for me. But no space felt completely safe.

"I knew what was going to happen when I went to that house. But how do you tell your parents that you don't want to go for a visit—ever—without explaining why? I felt like I couldn't tell anyone."

Stewart said she eventually told her parents of the abuse at age 11. She described giving a statement to police and said the man eventually confessed to his crimes. 

"I’ve cried. I cry most after I tell someone who’s important to me," Stewart wrote. "Talking about what I went through, explaining all of it — it guts me. I’m forced to relive it. That’s when it hits that what happened is real. It wasn’t just an awful nightmare. It wasn’t some other life I lived at another time.

"I’m angry he took advantage of me as a child. I’ll never get that time back. And what memories I still have, I’ll never be able to erase them. Sometimes I wish for a few more black holes."

Stewart is the latest major athlete to speak out on her experience with sexual abuse. Former Olympian McKayla Maroney detailed her allegations against former U.S. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar earlier this month. 

The Seattle Storm will reportedly name Dan Hughes as their new head coach, according to the Associated Press' Doug Feinberg.

Hughes will reportedly replace Jenny Boucek, who was fired Aug. 10 following a 10-16 start to the season that included four straight losses between July 30 and Aug. 8.

Boucek was replaced by interim head coach Gary Kloppenburg, who led the Storm to a 5-3 finish that preceded a 79-69 first-round playoff loss to the Phoenix Mercury.

Hughes, a 16-year WNBA head coach, most recently served as the San Antonio Stars' boss from 2005-2016.

During that 11-year stretch, Hughes helped transform the franchise from a Western Conference also-ran into a title contender. The Stars' high point came in 2008, when they went 24-10 and captured a Western Conference title.

However, the Stars came up short in the WNBA Finals and were swept by the Detroit Shock in three games.

The Stars recorded losing records in five of their next seven seasons, and Hughes proceeded to step down following a 7-26 campaign in 2016.

Now headed to the Pacific Northwest, Hughes—who owns a .453 career winning percentage—will be in charge of trying to help the Storm snare their first winning season since 2011.

Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird made history on Friday night, moving into first place on the WNBA's career assists list.

A look at HISTORY! 👀 @S10Bird is the @WNBA's ALL-TIME assist leader. 💯😀 pic.twitter.com/JZAZs1ZR5B

— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) September 1, 2017

Per ESPN's Kevin Pelton, Bird recorded career assist 2,600 during the first quarter of Friday's game against the Washington Mystics. 

Ticha Penicheiro, who played 15 seasons in the WNBA, previously held the record with 2,599 assists as a member of the Sacramento Monarchs, Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky. 

Bird entered Friday's game needing three assists to pass Penicheiro. She found Carolyn Swords at the basket for an easy layup with 3:37 left in the first quarter to rewrite the history books. 

Penicheiro congratulated Bird for passing her record with a post on Instagram:

Now in her 15th WNBA season, Bird has been one of the best players in league history. She has won two WNBA titles in 2004 and 2010, played in 10 All-Star games, has led the WNBA in assists three times and was named one of the 15-best players in WNBA history in 2011. 

At 36 years old, Bird shows no signs of slowing down. She entered play on Friday averaging 10.3 points and 6.4 assists in 29 games. 

The Seattle Storm announced a partnership with Planned Parenthood—an organization focused on reproductive health care—on Thursday that will include a "celebration of support." 

The Storm, along with Force 10 Hoops, are scheduled to hold an event July 18 at KeyArena before the WNBA team's game against the Chicago Sky. In addition, the team will take part in "fundraising efforts and active, ongoing support" for the group.

Seattle co-owner Dawn Trudeau said in the official partnership announcement the franchise believes it's "important to add our voice in favor of comprehensive health care for girls and women by supporting this wonderful organization."

"As individual Americans who are not legislators, merely citizens, we have felt hamstrung by our limited ability to make a meaningful impact in the national health care debate," she said. "Access to affordable, quality health care, including a full range of reproductive care, is a critical precondition for anyone—especially girls and women, to pursue their dreams and grow into their best selves."

The team will work directly with the Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, whose CEO, Christine Charbonneau, also released a statement.

"We are thrilled about this first-of-its-kind partnership," Charbonneau said. "The Seattle Storm owners made a decision to publicly support Planned Parenthood making them the first professional sports team to make their voice heard and their stance known."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVnRd5VTMzE

Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress reported the agreement came after the Storm's owners—Trudeau, Lisa Brummel and Ginny Gilder—became "increasingly frustrated by political attacks against Planned Parenthood" amid a larger national debate about health care.

"It was organic," Trudeau said. "We just talked about how this was something we felt was important right now. I think it's just one of the values that the three of us shared at the beginning, and it's been a core value of our partnership. It was a natural fit to combine the goals."

In January, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett and Manu Raju of CNN reported Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, was planning to "strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood" as part of the Affordable Care Act repeal efforts.

Seattle is one of just two franchises with a perfect record in the WNBA Finals. They are 2-0 in the league's championship series, winning the title in 2004 and 2010.

Their roster currently features some of the biggest names in women's basketball, including Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird.