Alysha Clark perfectly encapsulated the 2020 WNBA season while dedicating the Storm’s championship to ‘little Black girls and women across this country’

• Seattle Storm forward Alysha Clark dedicated her team’s 2020 WNBA championship victory to “little Black girls and women across this country.”
• The league and its players had previously devoted their season to Breonna Taylor and other women who were victims of police brutality and racial injustice.
• Immediately following the Storm’s sweep of the Las Vegas Aces, Clark told the press that she hopes “the Black women in this country and all the little Black girls … feel victorious tonight.”
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Alysha Clark has won a WNBA championship before, but she’ll be the first to tell you that her 2020 title with the Seattle Storm feels different.

“This one’s really special,” the 5-foot-11 forward said after completing the three-game Finals sweep of the Las Vegas Aces Tuesday night. “This one is special just because of the reason that we were here in the beginning.”

A whopping 93 days before Clark and her Storm teammates hoisted a trophy through falling confetti, they arrived on campus at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, to join their counterparts on other WNBA teams for a completely sequestered 2020 season. But Clark and the other WNBA players who traveled into a COVID-19 hotbed to compete had already resolved that the year would have “a bigger purpose” than basketball alone; they’d be devoting their season to demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and other female victims of police brutality and racial injustice.

“When our team collectively had the discussion about coming down here, we knew it was much bigger than us and we knew it was much bigger than tonight,” Clark said. “And so I really mean that when I say, I hope all the Black women in this country and all the little Black girls that dream to be something really special in this country, I hope you feel victorious tonight because this season was dedicated to you.”

“We see you. We hear you. We acknowledge you, and your life matters. And that was what the season was about,” she added.

Throughout the season, players wore Breonna Taylor's name on the back of their jerseys while championing various social justice initiatives. They spoke with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer. They demanded justice for the late Louisville EMT, honored Sandra Bland, and raised awareness for other Black women like them through a partnership with the "Say Her Name" campaign.

And after protests erupted around the country in light of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the players forced the league to postpone a slate of games in order to "stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA" against police brutality. Members of the Washington Mystics wore shirts with bullet holes while leading the league to strike, and players and staff alike joined together for a candlelight vigil during which commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league would "support you in every way we can."

"At the end of the day, this championship is amazing, it really is, and I'm super grateful for it," Clark said. "But the awareness and the message that we were able to get out is even greater."

WNBA stars across the league also joined forces to openly endorse Reverend Raphael Warnock — who is opposing incumbent Kelly Loeffler in her Georgia Senate race — despite her ownership stake in one of the league's teams. Players wore T-shirts enscribed with "VOTE WARNOCK" after many demanded Loeffler be banned from the WNBA after her comments against the Black Lives Matter movement.

Loeffler ironically apologized by calling on the league "to remove politics from sports" while using women's basketball as a political stance in her hotly contested special election. She also blamed "out of control cancel culture" for the players' decision to endorse Warnock.

Fittingly, Seattle secured its fourth title as a franchise the same day many states had voting registration deadlines. Players had taken time to encourage fans to register to vote on top of their other endeavors, but Clark acknowledged amid her pride that "we have a lot more work to continue."

"Even just speaking to raise awareness of the importance of voting and what comes after this is going to be a continuous fight," she told members of the press Tuesday night. "And we are ready for it. We are built for it."

"That's what the women of this league are made of," she added. "We are built to fight. We are built to stand up for what is right in this world, and we are going to continue to do that."

• Read more:
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• 18 months after an Achilles tear, Breanna Stewart dominated the Aces, won Finals MVP, then drank celebratory champagne during her media call
• Jewell Loyd gave a heartfelt tribute to mentor Kobe Bryant after winning the 2020 WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm
• WNBA players united to read a statement slamming the charges in the Breonna Taylor case