When Zia Cooke was waived by Los Angeles, her finger drifted to one name on her cell: Nneka Ogwumike. She only wanted someone to hear her, someone she could rely on. At South Carolina, life had been steady, almost certain. She started, she won, she belonged. In the pros, though, belonging felt different. Minutes came and went like passing clouds; bright one night, gone the next. She learned to hold on to brief chances, to make them shine, but even that wasn’t always enough.
When EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw asked Cooke in an exclusive interview, “What’s been the toughest challenge for you so far?” Cooke didn’t hesitate. “Being in the WNBA for sure. Like I said, I’ve been in the league for three years now. This is the most I haven’t played in my whole entire career,” she said.
Fresh from a national championship run under Dawn Staley at South Carolina, Zia Cooke entered the 2023 WNBA Draft as the 10th overall pick. In college, she was almost always in the starting five. The pros, however, told a different story. Her rookie season included just four starts, and by her second year with the Sparks, she was down to none, logging 29 appearances but only 8.9 minutes a night before eventually being waived.
After that call with her former teammate, though, Cooke felt at ease. Ogwumike told her that she’d love to share the court with her and promised to speak with the Storm about a chance. A couple of days later, head coach Noelle Quinn called directly, offering a spot in training camp while being upfront that other guards were also being considered. Cooke welcomed it. She just needed the opportunity to prove herself.
And prove herself she did. Now in Seattle, the story feels different. No, her playing time hasn’t skyrocketed, and those four starts are still the only ones of her pro career. However, she feels she belongs now, as she shared in the exclusive chat with EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw.
“Being in my third year, I can feel that I’m moving upwards now. My first two years were definitely hard because I didn’t feel like I was improving or getting closer to the goals I had. But being in Seattle, I can tell they believe in me. They understand the kind of game I bring. I think God places me in certain situations for a reason. No, I’m not getting as much playing time as I’d like, but I’m learning from Skylar Diggins, Erica Wheeler, Nneka Ogwumike—I’m learning from these people. So when their time is up, God willing, the shoes will be mine.”
Well, how often do you see a player suit up for 26 games with one team, get traded, and then, less than two weeks later, return to the original team? That’s what happened with Zia Cooke. On August 5, the Storm traded her to the Mystics in exchange for Brittney Sykes, but she was subsequently waived. Less than two weeks later, on August 18, Cooke signed a rest-of-season contract with the Storm. The reason? The organization trusts her–a sentiment echoed by every veteran on the roster, including those who’ve played alongside Cooke before.
“She’s transformed as a person and player since she came to Seattle,” said Nneka Ogwumike. “She’s totally locked in. She pays attention to everything; she asks the right questions. I have to say that she is kind of the energizer when she comes off the bench. It’s very rare that she comes in and makes mistakes.”
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Lexie Brown, who’s played alongside Cooke before, has specifically noticed a new confidence in Cooke. The 24-year-old certainly feels it, too, crediting it to Seattle and its environment, where her mind constantly asks, “How do I stay here?”
In the Storm, Cooke’s role is clear: lockdown perimeter defense. In college, offense drove her game; now, surrounded by stars like Ogwumike, Wheeler, Diggins, Gabby Williams, and Magbegor, scoring isn’t her focus. Quinn’s guidance has pushed her from day one to defend not just with body, but with the mind – reading rotations, scouting reports, and every system detail that makes a defender elite.
That defense now keeps improving thanks to the teachings of Gabby Williams. As per The Next, by July itself-
Opponents scored only 0.304 points per chance against Cooke’s 26 closeouts.
On direct drives, Cooke allowed just 0.82 points per chance.
As the primary defender on handoffs, isolations, and post-ups, Cooke permitted only 0.57 points per direct action
Cooke’s standout performance this season came against the Connecticut Sun on June 27. In 24 minutes of action, she scored 9 points, grabbed a rebound, and dished out 2 assists–efforts that didn’t go unnoticed. All-Star Skylar Diggins praised her, saying, “She’s another young player on our team who wasn’t even sure at the start of camp if she was going to make the team. But she worked her tail off, and she made this team. She earned her time.”
Under the guidance of Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins, Cooke has bounced back from her disappointing sophomore season with the Sparks. During the 2025 regular season, she played 26 games for the Storm, averaging 3.3 points and 0.5 assists per game while posting career-high shooting percentages of 34.6% from the field and 38.2% from beyond the arc. While it’s not yet the level she hopes to reach, everyone in Seattle is fully behind her growth, as she mentioned in her interview, and there’s no doubt she’ll be a key asset for the Storm in the coming years.
Speaking of emerging talent in Seattle, there’s another rookie who has also been taken under the wing of Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike.
Zia Cooke is not the only young player the vets have expectations for
In the 2025 WNBA Draft, the Storm made history by selecting Dominique Malonga with the second overall pick, making her the youngest player ever drafted in league history. Throughout the regular season, her impact was limited due to restricted minutes, but the playoffs showcased the true potential of the rookie.
In the do-or-die game against the Las Vegas Aces in round 1 of the playoffs, the Storm were down by 14 points at one stage. Heading into the 4th, they were still down by 8. But with about 30 seconds left and a slim two-point lead, the Storm went into overdrive. Dominique Malonga’s layup-and-one gave Seattle the lead, and Skylar Diggins’ clutch jump shot with 4 seconds remaining on the clock sealed a cruel fate for the Aces, keeping the Storm’s season alive and ending the Aces’ historic run. This was the game where Malonga announced herself to the world.
While the Storm didn’t advance to the semifinals, both Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike praised Malonga’s remarkable maturity for her age. “I remember myself at 19, and that’s not something I was thinking about doing, let alone succeeding at,” Ogwumike said of Malonga. “Not only is Dom wise, but I also feel like there is a bit of naivety that contributes to—”
“She don’t know no better,” Diggins interrupted, to which Ogwumike agreed, calling that kind of innocence “beautiful.”
The Storm now boasts a promising crop of young talent, with players like Cooke and Malonga. The organization clearly has high expectations and faith in its abilities. If these youngsters are able to fully realize their potential, the future looks incredibly bright for Seattle!