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SEATTLE STORM
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Seattle Storm visit President Biden, White House to celebrate 2020 WNBA title

They strode in one-by-one as AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" was played by a chorus of violins. For the first time in years, a WNBA team accepted an invitation to celebrate a championship at the White House.

One day after their win against the Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm players, coaches and executives made the most of their visit to the nation's capital, visiting with President Joe Biden to commemorate last year's WNBA championship.

"It feels good to be back in this place and to have our achievements celebrated in this way," Storm veteran and five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird said.

Seattle swept the Las Vegas Aces in the 2020 WNBA Finals to earn its fourth championship. 

President Joe Biden holds a Seattle Storm jersey as he poses for a photo with the 2020 WNBA champions in the East Room of the White House.

The players were joined at the White House by the all-female Storm ownership group, Storm President and CEO Alisha Valavanis and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Former Seattle forward Alysha Clark, now a member of the Mystics, missed the trip because she tested positive for COVID-19

Biden highlighted the impact of the Storm's success, along with the three Seattle players who were part of the United States' Olympic team that won gold in Tokyo

"As President, as an American, I'm proud of how they represented us, and they represent the best of what America stands for, as does this whole team," Biden said. 

BIRD:'I can’t imagine a world where I’m not involved with women’s basketball'

In addition to the championship, Biden also honored the Storm's off-court work including the creation of the Storm’s Force4Change Initiative.

Crystal Langhorne, who was a member of the 2020 championship team and is now the Storm’s Director of Community Engagement, said it's an honor to recognize the Storm's success on the court but the Storm organization is prouder of its off-court accomplishments. 

Langhorne was one of the Storm players instrumental in the team’s social justice efforts last year when the WNBA played its entire season in a bubble in Florida. She emphasized how Force4Change helped amplify black women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) youth, and the LGBTQ plus community.

"It's not just about amplifying," Langhorne said. "It's about investing into communities that have been underserved and working with the organizations that have been leading the way in this space."

This summer, she said, Force4Change worked with community leaders to invest $100,000 in the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, matching what they invested to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The Storm are the first team to be honored with a White House ceremony under Biden's presidency and they're the first WNBA team to make a visit since the 2015 Minnesota Lynx. No WNBA or NBA team has visited the White House since the Cleveland Cavaliers during President Barack Obama's last year in office. 

"I think for a very long time, up until 2016, going to the White House was an honor," Bird, a four-time WNBA champion who made her third trip to the White House, said. "It wasn't necessarily political. It was to meet the president of the United States. The person who holds that office acknowledging your team's success."

Bird and many WNBA players have openly embraced social justice movements like Black Lives Matter, which Donald Trump characterized as violent. Trump has also criticized Bird's fiancée, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Before the ceremony, Storm players participated in a conversation with members of the White House Gender Policy Council. They also worked with the White House to record messages supporting gender, racial and LGBTQ+ equality, voting rights and COVID-19 vaccination.

"What makes this team wonderful is they don't just win games; they change lives," Biden said. "That's what winners do. They shine the light, they lift people up, they are a force for change. That's the Seattle Storm." 

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