Playoffs last hurrah for Storm’s Thompson, a WNBA all-time great

SEATTLE — When the Seattle Storm begins postseason play tonight, Tina Thompson begins the final leg of her distinguished, nearly 17-year journey through the WNBA.

While the Storm are a long shot to do much in the playoffs, let alone get out of the first round, Thompson’s goal is as it always has been this time of year — win a championship. Is it possible she can provide a little magic similar to what Ray Lewis provided the Baltimore Ravens in their run to a Super Bowl win in his final NFL season a year ago?

Thompson admits she has thought about it, but not because it’s her final season.

“I’ve thought about it in the sense that every single year that I play, my goal is to win a championship,” Thompson said as the Storm prepared for their best-of-three Western Conference semifinals tonight at No. 1 seed Minnesota.

“I don’t play for anything less than that. I feel like any other mindset is kind of a waste of time. (Ending with a championship) would be great, but that’s something that I look forward to at least trying to do every year.”

Thompson, who is in her second season with the Storm, announced in May that she would retire at season’s end. The organization honored her with a postgame ceremony after Seattle defeated Tulsa in the regular-season finale for both teams this past Saturday. By then the Storm had qualified for the postseason for a league-record 10th consecutive season, extending Thompson’s exceptional career by at least two games.

Nearly 17 years ago, Thompson was the first pick in the inaugural WNBA draft. As a rookie, she helped the Houston Comets win the WNBA championship. The Comets went on to win the first four WNBA titles behind Thompson and teammates Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes.

All the while, Thompson was growing to be one of the league’s brightest stars and went on to accomplish more than she ever dreamed. She went on to become the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and second-leading rebounder while distinguishing herself as one of the best female basketball players in history.

“Tina came in as a rookie and really showcased her talent right from the beginning and then continued to grow from there,” Cynthia Cooper said. “When you look at Tina as a rookie coming out of USC (the University of Southern California) to the player she has developed into now, it’s just amazing.”

On the surface, it’s hard to understand why Thompson is retiring. She hasn’t missed a game this season, was the Storm’s leader in points, rebounds and blocks and was named the league’s Western Conference Player of the Week twice, bringing her career total to eight.

But for Thompson the reason is actually very simple.

“I’m just tired,” Thompson said. “No other reason other than that. My body is older, a lot of mileage, it just kind of changes the perspective.”

Circumstances forced Thompson to assume a bigger role this season with the Storm. The team lost point guard Sue Bird and center Lauren Jackson to injuries.

But even in her final season, Thompson proved she could still be one of the best in the league, averaging 14.1 points per game, more than five points higher than her average a year ago.

“The reason she’s such a great player — and I’m going to say this and it might sound generic, but it’s so unusual and there is only few like this — she’s great every day,” Storm coach Brian Agler said, “(Great players) compete, they work hard in practice, they get ready for games, and they are consistently great. That’s why she is at the elite level.”

Agler knows great players when he sees them, in Seattle he has coached Bird, Jackson, Thompson and Katie Smith, the all-time leading scorer in the history of women’s professional basketball.

“To have success in basketball and to have success in our league, you have to have tremendous talent,” Agler said. “… It’s such a pleasure to have the ability to coach tremendous talent both as individuals, but also those four really have a great concept of the team setting, too.”

Thompson always has focused being a team-first player. She never played for individual accolades.

“I never set goals to be an all-star or to be a WNBA first or second-teamer or anything like that,” Thompson said. “My goal is always to win basketball games, make the playoffs and to at least vie for a championship and do whatever I can to help my team do that. The work that I’ve put in has allowed me to accomplish the things that I have, but those are goals I just don’t set for myself.”

The focus on team might also be the reason Thompson speaks so highly of the Storm despite the team’s nothing-to-write-home-about, 17-17 regular-season record.

“This is the first time that it has happened to me in 17 seasons that I’ve been on a team where we all just like each other and get along,” Thompson said. “There is no drama with anyone. We’ve changed, a couple players have been here and left and been replaced and yet still everyone that comes in, their personality totally suits this team. It is a very, very rare circumstance for that to happen throughout an entire season.”

Given Thompson’s performance this season, no one could fault her if she simply changed her mind and was back in uniform in 2014. She certainly wouldn’t be the first high-profile athlete to abandon retirement plans for one more go-round.

But Thompson said her mind is made up, and she’s not second-guessing her decision.

“The tombstone has been carved and engraved, it’s a wrap,” she said.

Aaron Lommers covers the Seattle Storm for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.