Storm secures Swoopes

SEATTLE – Sheryl Swoopes is bringing her three WNBA MVP awards and her three Olympic gold medals to the Seattle Storm.

Swoopes, who helped the Houston Comets win the first four league championships and is one of just seven players to be a part of all 11 WNBA seasons, signed with the Storm as a free agent Monday.

“I just wanted a fresh start, and if this was going to be my last year, I wanted to go out on top,” said the 36-year-old Swoopes, who is coming off back surgery last October, and now says she feels no more pain. “Any time you deal with an injury, you don’t know how you’re going to be able to come back from it. Once I had the surgery and everything felt better, it became a matter of, ‘OK, what am I going to do?’

“Houston is home to me, and it will always be home,” added Swoopes, a 6-footer who can play in either backcourt or frontcourt. “But I’m ready for a new phase.”

Swoopes signed a multiyear contract. The specifics were not disclosed.

She was the second recent big-name pickup by the Storm, purchased last month by a local ownership group to ensure the team’s future in Seattle. The Storm recently acquired All-Star Swin Cash in a trade with the Detroit Shock.

Swoopes will join All-Stars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird on the Seattle roster. Jackson is a two-time MVP winner.

“There aren’t many, if any players, who are better than Lauren,” Swoopes said. “Teams are going to have a hard time deciding, ‘OK, do we double-team Lauren and leave Sheryl, or do we double-team Sheryl?’ “

But new Storm head coach Brian Agler said signing Swoopes, a six-time All-Star, doesn’t necessarily give his team an added advantage in the rugged Western Conference. The West includes defending champion Phoenix. In addition, perennial power Los Angeles will welcome back Lisa Leslie to its lineup this season.

“To me, it’s sort of trying to keep up with the Joneses a little bit,” Agler said.