Sheryl Swoopes’ ‘Unfair’ Awa Fam Take Bodes Well for Storm
Awa Fam finally made her debut for the Seattle Storm in a 97-85 win against the Washington Mystics. The 19-year-old finished with 10 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal in 20 minutes off the bench. It was a very solid debut for a teenager who missed training camp and just came off a long season in Spain.
She also impressed four-time WNBA champion Sheryl Swoopes, who is a fan of the Storm’s promising frontcourt.
“That kid’s gonna be nice,” Swoopes said about Fam on the May 26 episode of The Women’s Hoop Show.
Swoopes added, “Seeing Awa Fam on the floor the other day, I was like, ‘Oh. Oh, I get it.’ And then on the sideline to see Ezi [Magbegor] in street clothes, Dom [Malonga] in street clothes, I was like, ‘It’s unfair.’”
Malonga and Magbegor make for a very athletic, long, and talented frontcourt, but adding Fam into the mix as well significantly raises the Storm’s ceiling. We have already seen outstanding performances from this year’s rookies, but Fam has the potential to be the best player in the class. All three of them being healthy and available at the same time does indeed seem unfair.
Malonga is currently out with a concussion and Magbegor with a foot injury, but between those two and Fam, Seattle has one of the most intriguing frontcourts in the W. Given how young Malonga and Fam are, that talent may not translate to much team success this season, but the future already seems bright for the Storm.
The Storm have a talented young core
The WNBA is full of great young cores. The Indiana Fever have Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, Washington has Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, Shakira Austin, and a whole array of rookies, and the Chicago Sky have Rickea Jackson and Kamilla Cardoso. Seattle belongs in that conversation as well.
Malonga and Fam are two of the youngest players in the WNBA. Fam and Nell Angloma are the only teenagers in the league, and Malonga is one of three 20-year-olds alongside Cassandre Prospoer and Juste Jocyte. But both already look like future MVP candidates, and they were the overwhelming answers in the last two GM surveys to the question, “Which rookie will be the best player in five years?”
Malonga has already made a significant leap after a promising rookie season that ended with extended playoff minutes and a stint in Unrivaled. She scored 21 points in two of her first three games and flirted with a double-double both times. Fam, meanwhile, established herself as an excellent passer and showed off impressive footwork and inside scoring in Europe.
On top of that, the Storm have Flau’jae Johnson on the perimeter. The former LSU star landed with the Storm in a surprising draft-day trade with the Golden State Valkyries and is off to a solid start. Her inefficiency isn’t great at 32% shooting from the field, but it’s also not entirely unexpected for a rookie who averages the third-most shot attempts on the team and has to carry a big scoring load right away.
Once those three have more experience and get a chance to build chemistry together, they will be a dangerous core for the Storm. If Ezi Magbegor stays around for the process, Seattle will be even more dangerous.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.