Sue Bird wasn't on Twitter the last time she won a WNBA title in 2010, so she was in awe of the support the Storm received during its run toward a third WNBA title.
"I was joking with my teammates that this is my first championship in the age of social media," the 37-year-old veteran said the other day. "So seeing the different tweets whether it was the other sports teams like the Seahawks or the Reign, seeing them tweet at us and congratulating us or wishing us luck.
"The basketball community in Seattle there's nothing like it so having their support was no surprise. But having the larger community kind of get in on it, it was pretty cool. It was something special."
So much has changed in the past eight years for Seattle's professional basketball team. The cast of characters that gathered around Bird last week, celebrating the Storm's third WNBA title after its sweep of the Washington Mystics, is entirely different from the team she led to the franchise's last title in 2010.
In the barren years after title No. 2, the Storm weathered some tough times, and after the 2015 season, Bird herself contemplated leaving Seattle and signing with a different team.
But she stayed. And now she's led the Storm to a third title. Here's a look at how the Storm rebuilt and remade itself en route to the 2018 WNBA championship.
