Seattle Storm's Katie Lou Samuelson returns to action after nearly 2 years

Nervous?

Definitely.

And who could blame her?

Before a long-delayed season debut, the last time Katie Lou Samuelson played in a WNBA game was 622 days ago on Sept. 22, 2024.

And there she was Sunday afternoon, sitting on the court below the scorer's table waiting to check in for the Storm with 4:16 remaining in the first quarter to make her long-awaited return after sitting out last season due to a right knee injury.

"It's pretty insane to truly think about it," Samuelson said. "That's probably the most nervous, jitters and adrenaline I've ever had in a game, in all types of games, whether it's playoffs, championships, whatever."

Think about that for a second.

The 28-year-old Samuelson, who was the consensus national prep player of the year in 2015 while growing up in Santa Ana, Calif., won an NCAA championship with the Connecticut Huskies in 2016.

She helped the Storm win the first-ever Commissioner's Cup title in 2021 - the same year she led Perfumerias Avenida Baloncesto, a professional women's basketball team in Salamanca, Spain, to a Liga Femenina Endesa championship while winning the finals MVP.

Samuelson, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2019 draft, played in 143 WNBA games, and yet Sunday was different from all the rest.

"That truly was a surreal feeling of finally getting back out there," she said. "I'm really happy with how it went. I'm really happy to just get back in the mix and continue to build each game."

For the record, the 6-foot-3 forward scored three points on 1-for-2 shooting from the field, collected two rebounds and dished two assists in 18 minutes off the bench during a 97-85 win against the Washington Mystics (2-3).

Both teams meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday for a rematch at Climate Pledge Arena.

The Storm (3-4) weren't necessarily planning on playing Samuelson so much in her debut, but she showed no signs of laboring.

"We were going to sort of see how the game went and how she felt and play off of that," coach Sonia Raman said. "There was a lot of checking in with her. The medical staff and our performance staff, they did a really good job getting her ready for that moment and continuing to keep her ready and get her recovered for our next game.

"She's been with us for a while now, so I think a little bit more of a seamless transition for her in that way, and a little bit more on my end of knowing what to expect with her out there."

Last May, Samuelson underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee, which was injured during the first week of training camp.

"We were doing a transition drill. I went up for a layup and planted, and just noncontact," she said. "Instantly knew something was not right, but then kind of after the fact, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe it wasn't that bad because I thought it would hurt a little bit more afterward.' I thought I was just being dramatic, but then I got the MRI and just went from there."

Admittedly, it was a difficult time for Samuelson, who missed the 2023 season after giving birth to daughter Aliya and battled through a strenuous 2024 season with the Indiana Fever when she averaged 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 34.9% on field goals and 33.0% on three-pointers.

"You take some time to grieve the situation," Samuelson said. "For me, what was really hard was I felt like that was the best I had felt since after giving birth. … It was a struggle playing in Indiana, just for me personally, both postpartum, both physically and all that.

"So, I got through that year, got myself to a point where I felt super ready to go, and so that (knee injury) was such a down moment."

Perhaps in a bit of twisted misfortune, Samuelson endured arduous months of recovery alongside teammate Jordan Horston, who tore the ACL in her left knee in February 2025.

"I was there when she went down and I've seen her whole journey pretty much from the start to now," Horston said. "No two surgeries, recoveries or journeys are the same because we're all different, our bodies are different and we heal differently.

"But we still share similar things. Me and Lou, we got through this together. … We're trauma bonded for life. We're like knee twins."

Horston leaned heavily on Nika Mühl, who tore her left ACL in 2024 and her right ACL this March, for support and gave the advice she received from her former Storm teammate to Samuelson.

"I told her, ‘Give yourself grace,'" Horston said. "There's going to be hard days, going to be some ugly days and some great days. Find the joy in the small wins and know that this journey is long, but it's not forever."

Samuelson added: "Lucky for me, I was on a path a few months behind Jordy and was able to see everything she was doing. Unfortunately, she was kind of the guinea pig of what we had to do. I could always see that vision. It was unfortunate to have somebody along there with you, but it also was really special to have that."

The Storm were so confident in Samuelson's return, they signed her to a guaranteed two-year deal worth $840,000 that pays her $420,000 this season, according to HerHoopsStats.

"It shows the belief we have in her," Raman said. "We know what she is as a basketball player. She just had to get back to being healthy, and be able to get back out there and contribute. We knew her timeline and we were pretty familiar with how she was progressing on the medical side, so we felt really good about what she brings to this organization.

"She's a really high-level, home-run culture fit. She moves the ball. She's unselfish. She provides really good floor spacing for her teammates. We have some really great paint players, so she's just a really good complement to everything we're trying to do both on the court and off the court."

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 6:37 AM.