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November 14, 2025 11 mins

Sonia Raman, new Seattle Storm Head Coach, joins Dick Fain to talk about her ties to Seattle, her experience coaching not only in the WNBA but NBA as well, making some history as an Indian-American woman, the Storm roster, and her head coaching style.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now back to football frive Age sponsored by Tito's Handmade
Vodka on your Home for the NFL Sports Radio ninety
three point three kJ r FL.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
All right, we are rolling right along, baby on a
busy Friday night. Don't forget we got college hoops, the
Apple Cup of Basketball wazoo you dub coming up eight o'clock,
Tony and Jason, Jason and Tony pregame starting at seven thirty.
Rick new Heisel, we'll join us next segment Courtesy Attack
on time, but we're gonna take a little bit of
a detour. It is in the basketball realm. But you

(00:33):
meeting Dick Faine had a chance to catch up with
a brand new Storm coach Shorty heard this week, right.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, Sonya Rahman.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
It was great to meet her, and she just has
a vast breadth of coaching experience.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
She played at Toughs, she coached.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Women at MIT, and then coached in the NBA with
the Memphis Grizzly. Our old friend member Rich Joe, our
old friend Rich Choe. I hired her on at Memphis
and then she went back to the New York Liberty
w NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
So her first.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Opportunity to be the w NBA head coach of the
Seattle Torrent Stormer, first time as a head coach in
the w NBA, and I had a chance to chat
with her Sony, how are you.

Speaker 5 (01:11):
I'm doing great. How are you?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm great?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I know you've been You've been doing the the interview
the circuit this week. What has the last three or
four days been like since you got into town.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
It's been a whirlwind, but really exciting. I've gotten to
meet a lot of great folks here in Seattle and
spent some time in their practice facility, which is, you know,
the best practice facility I've ever seen. So it's it's
been really great.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, you mentioned that practice facility.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
What does the Storm Center for Basketball Performance say about
this franchise's commitment to not only success, but to the
future of this league.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
I think, you know, you can just see the investment
in these women by being so forward thinking and putting
that facility up, you know, one of the first to
go up in the league, and you know the details
in there, and they've thought of everything the players really
want for nothing, and so it's so intentional in terms
of their commitment and how they show it.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
And I understand that you were there earlier in the year,
maybe in the preseason. You actually got a chance to
see some practices at one point.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Is that right.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
I've been going to practices for a while. I was
at training camp back in twenty twenty four. The organization
welcome me in and I got to observe and it
was it was really high level.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Tell us about your ties you have to Northwest.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
I know you got some big family ties here, so
this isn't a totally strange new corner of the world
for you.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
That's right. Seattle is like a second home to me.
My wife is from here. We got married out here,
so you know, I love coming out this way and
spending time in Seattle, and I'm so excited to be
able to really officially call this home now.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's so great to have you.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
What's the reputation nationally of this organization and of Seattle Basketball.
I mean, when you think of the Storm brand, what
comes to mind to you?

Speaker 5 (03:02):
I mean it's high level. The World Championship comes to
mind right out of the gate. Four of them across
different eras and really as well like leaders in promoting
women in sports and professional women and it's just it's
a summer league and being in Seattle in the summer,
it's incredible, so high reputation. You know, players love coming
Seattle to play here. It's a great it's a great

(03:24):
place to be and it's really again exciting to be
part of it now.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
New head coach of the Seattle Storm, Sonya Rahman, joining
us here on ninety three point three KJRFM. The one
question I was kind of asking other members of the
media when I went to your press conference when you
were introduced, was is.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
This an in the box hire or an out of
the box hire?

Speaker 4 (03:44):
I mean, you could say it's an in the box
hire because you were Sandy Brondello's assistant in the WNBA
last year, so that's that's a natural step to make
from assistant to head coach in the same league. But
then you were in the NBA for four years in Memphis.
You've coached college. Yeah, you've done. You've been You've been
in the in the business world outside of basketball.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
So what do you think? Is this an in the
box hire by the Stormer and out of the box hire?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
You know what?

Speaker 5 (04:11):
Like, I'll let you decide on what you want to
call it. Whether it's in the box, you're out of
the box. I'm so glad, Like I didn't plan all
of that, you know, those experiences to get to where
I am now. But I'm so glad that, you know,
I had those experiences and everything unfolded the way it did.
I think those varied places that I've been have really
helped to shape me and help me to bring best

(04:34):
practices from you know, different leads, different industries as you mentioned,
and bring all of that and synthesize that into how
we can bring that to the Seattle and you know,
continue this this excellence and continue to sustain this level
of competitives that we have in this organization.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well, tell us about your time in Memphis, because you've
got a mutual friend, Enriched Shoe, who I know helped
you a lot and he was a he was a
good friend back here in Seattle when he was with
the Sonics a long time ago and we had an
NBA team here. You know what did that time in
Memphis with the NBA teach you more about the game
and make you more prepared for this job.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
Well, first of all, just a quick note on Rich.
I mean Rich really has changed the trajectory of my career.
I mean his phone call to me when I was
at MIT. I wasn't thinking about, you know, a move
in that way, and I wasn't pursuing a.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Job in the NBA.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
He gave me that call and it really changed everything.
So my time in Memphis was really impactful for me,
you know, leaving the Boston area, experiencing a different part
of the country, experience a different league. It was four seasons.
It felt like a crash course and the highest level
of basketball and the men's side possible. You know, I
loved every second of it. I really soaked everything up

(05:48):
like a sponge and made some really really great friendships
along the way down there as well.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
And when you were hired on in the NBA, you
became the first woman of Indian descent ever to coach
in the NBA. You're now the first person of Indian
descent to be the head coach in either league.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
So what does that mean to you.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
It's an honor to be able to be in that position.
I want to make sure that I do what I
can to further those opportunities for the next generation. But
you know, it's certainly a responsibility that they don't take lightly.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
This is a fascinating situation that you come into, and
Seattle is not alone. I mean, almost every team only
has a small handful of players due to the expiring
collective bargaining agreement. So a lot of the players decided, hey,
at the end of the twenty twenty five season, I
want to be a free agent because I got no
idea what's coming next.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
So you only have four players on the roster right now.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
So how hard is that to kind of, you know,
build a team and kind of foresee what you want
twenty twenty six to look like When you only have
you know, basically forty percent of your roster less than
forty percent of your roster right now, you.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Know, well, we'll get there. I think that one of
the things about this organizations. They've positioned us really well
in our front office, and tuluis Aria has positioned this
team really really well for this coming season. Obviously, all
the teams are in the same boat in terms of
not having a lot of people under contract, but there's
so much flexibility. You know, we have great draft pick
positions as well, so we're really really positioned to be

(07:19):
able to compete for the best and continue to compete
for championships.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Well, you do have a couple of special players on
that roster, including the second overall pick last year who
just absolutely bursted onto the scene in the second half
of the season. Give us your thoughts on don Along
as a player, because it just seems like she's got
super starred and written all over.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
The sky's a limit for dom. I'm really excited to
start working with her, learn more about her, and you know,
see what all the different possibilities are for her. I
think my responsibility is to help her to reach her
full potential, and I'm excited to do that and I'm
excited to see, you know, where we can go. I
think it's going to be really unique and something that

(08:04):
we haven't seen in basketball before. And you know, she
she is a generational talent and just it's it's such
an exciting thing for this fan base to be able to,
you know, go watch her every single night.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
New Storm coach Sonya Raman joining us here at ninety
three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Just a couple more minutes.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
So, and to wrap things up with finding out who
you are as a coach, let's talk about the style
of basketball that the Seattle Storm will play that we'll
get to watch a climate plaede.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Starting in May.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
The storm, We're going to compete, We're going to try
to get better every day. We're going to do it together.
There's going to be a selflessness and a celebration of
each other, and we're going to do it with joy,
so that those are going to be the things that
you're going to see hopefully every day. You know, I
practice at games that will be our identity. And you know,
as far as me, I think like building those relationships

(08:53):
with the players, you know, being really driven to try
to fight, find ways to unlock how good we can
possibly be, and you know, be be really competitive and
really prepared every day.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
Well, you played it tough, so you coached at MI
t so I mean I think the word, the word
genius comes to mind.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I think of somebody with that, with that resume.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
I know you're not going to call yourself a genius,
but talk about your strengths as a coach.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
No, I'm definitely not going to call myself that I
coached some geniuses along the way. You know, I wasn't
the person who was actually at MIT as a student.
My strength as a coach, I think I can find
different ways to connect with people you know and find
ways to put groups together. I mean I think m T.

(09:43):
You know, every year we sort of had the roster turnover,
we sort of had to wait for admissions to let
us know who is going to be on the team,
so you couldn't plan a system too far in advance.
And being able to be adaptable and resilient and get
the most out of any combination of players that we have.
And I think also just utilizing the resources and some
of my background as well, you know, being able to

(10:06):
lean into film, into data, into analytics, but also that
feel when you're watching a game, when you're sitting down
with a player and listening to them and you know
what they're looking to do, what their pain points are,
what their challenges are, I think is really important as well.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
And finally filling out your staff. You mentioned in your
press conference you wanted to hire assistance that fill your gaps,
So you know what are your gaps and what type
of assistance are you looking for.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
I mean, I mean one thing is I've only been
in the w for a year now, right, so you know,
people with with that type of experience are going to
be really important to me. You know, someone who's maybe
played in the league before. You know, that's going to
be really valuable for me to lean on a former
player in that way. So yeah, I mean I have
a lot of gaps, I think, you know, That's that's

(10:53):
the fun part about coaching is you always you always
have areas where you can get better. And I think
most of all, just say good people that you want
to work with every day that are going to bring
energy into the building, that are going to be really
positive and pour into our players. I really want to
see people like that, you know, as part of our organization.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Well, it is great to have you here in Seattle.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
You know, is when you came with the Liberty last year,
you know what it's like to be a climate pledgerina
as the other team, it's not very fun. So you
get to be on the home team now and see
the Storm crazy after you.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
So it's great to have you and thanks for joining.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
There you go, Sonya Raman with Dick. You missed that,
check out the podcast. Man the brand new head coach
of the Seattle Storm. Boy, does she have no idea
what she's in for dealing with you in a lease?
It's going to be hell on earth.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Man,
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