Hannah Storm Is Relishing This Moment in Women’s Sports (Exclusive)

Hannah Storm knows a little something about rebounding.

The legendary ESPN broadcaster — who called the first broadcast of a WNBA game — started out her career as a Houston Rockets sideline reporter, loves the New York Liberty (and maybe its mascot Ellie even more) and is excited about the future of women’s basketball.

Storm is also currently working through breast cancer treatment, and came back to work after only one week off following her diagnosis and a lumpectomy in January 2024.

“I’m doing really well,” Storm, 62, tells PEOPLE exclusively while at a mammogram screening event sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company in Tampa, Fla., on the eve of the women’s Final Four showdown between UConn and South Carolina. “Treatments can be very individualized and very specific, and so I was able to get back to work really quickly and my surgery was successful and so far so good.”

“But I’m screened really aggressively now,” she adds. “You’re screened with MRIs, you’re screened with mammograms, you’re screened with ultrasound, you’re screened every six months, and I will happily do that for the rest of my life.”

Storm is also happy to bring awareness to the issue, encouraging women to be on top of their health and make time to get their mammograms.

“Because I had the earliest form of breast cancer, when you look at the five-year survival rate, it’s as high as 99% … I mean, who wouldn’t want that?” Storm says. “You get diagnosed with cancer, but you have a 99% five-year survival rate. It’s just stunning. But again, you have to get on top of it early to have that kind of outcome.”

Storm is bouncing back from last year’s diagnosis, and her enthusiasm for basketball is contagious.

Despite her women’s bracket getting busted thanks to an early exit from her alma mater Notre Dame, Storm was riding high at the time of PEOPLE’s interview (at least until after the championship game a few days later) thanks to her Houston Cougars pick on the men’s side.

Storm has an affinity for the teams near where she has lived, whether it’s Houston, the Fighting Irish or UConn, which is near her Connecticut home.

“We’re kind of like between New York and between Boston,” Storm tells PEOPLE. “So half the people love Boston sports, half the people love New York sports and everybody loves UConn.”

As the SportsCenter anchor can attest, it’s a good time to be a Huskies fan — and a woman who works amid the ever-changing sports landscape.

“I was thinking about this last night,” Storm tells PEOPLE about looking back on the evolution of her career. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool.’ I never could have imagined it when I started off and I was the only woman. I’m one of seven or eight broadcasters from just ESPN alone that are here.”

She adds, “Now I go to work and it’s just like everybody, especially this time of year, everybody’s there and it’s all women, and a lot of times it’s two women anchoring SportsCenter. It’s just come so far and it’s the norm, and it’s just the energy and the vibe. It just makes me happy. I love it. I love coming to work. I love talking about everything. Everything from motherhood to fashion, to obviously to sports, but just having that connectivity is just so gratifying to me.”