Olympics
Transition from teammates to rivals an easy game for Storm

By Jayda Evans
Seattle Times staff reporter

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES Storm forward Lauren Jackson, left, will play for Australia in Athens. Guard Sue Bird, center, is on the U.S. squad, along with Anne Donovan, an assistant coach.

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Storm coach Anne Donovan was as casual as her velour sweatpants and green polo.

Holding the staple Seattle coffee cup in her left hand and a microphone in her right, the normally reserved coach spilled into a free-flowing story about the upcoming Athens Olympics at the Storm's final shoot-around — which was open to season-ticket holders — before the Olympic break. Making her fourth trip to the Games, and her first as an assistant coach for the U.S. team, Donovan received an early morning laugh by telling the crowd an anecdote about forward Lauren Jackson.

"We were sitting on the plane and I said, 'Don't worry, I won't tell Lisa Leslie all your secrets,' " said Donovan, commenting that Jackson scoffed at the thought. Then replied that it's OK if the coach did.

"But I told Lauren there's nothing I could tell them," Donovan continued. "If they don't know how to stop you by now, they never will. And there's no way to stop Lauren Jackson."

True. Jackson, 23, has played against Olympic coach Van Chancellor's Houston Comets the past four seasons and tangoed with Leslie inside the paint since joining the Australian national team at age 16. They know her game.

In fact, everyone does. For players, the transition from rivals to teammates or vice versa is easy because they've experienced the blurred lines of basketball since AAU.

Former Storm guard Semeka Randall jumped into the 6-foot-5 Jackson's arms before San Antonio played Seattle in June. Putting the gushy pregame snuggle aside, Jackson embarrassed Randall's Silver Stars by scoring 27 points on a barrage of turnaround jumpers. Afterward she wondered if the team was guarding her at all, then caught a ride with Randall to a postgame gathering.

Or take the team's season opener against Minnesota in May. As the Storm wrapped up its shoot-around, the Lynx converged on the court, confusing who played for whom.

"It's like a family picnic," said Olympian Katie Smith of the moment where former teammates Sheri Sam and Janell Burse greeted the Minnesota guard as Storm players. "We're used to this. We go at it on the court, then meet up for dinner afterward with no hard feelings."

Eight out of the 12 teams competing at the Games have WNBA players on their rosters. In Athens, Donovan and Olympian Sue Bird will, if the games go as scripted, cross paths with Jackson, their team-leading scorer. Yet, while feeling "weird" about the possibility of driving a Jackson-filled lane, Bird looks forward to the offcourt interaction.

"It'll be fun having a friend over there," said Bird, who'll also reunite with guard Sandy Brondello, who opted not to return to the Storm this summer in order to make the Australian national team. "Hopefully we'll be able to meet up and go to dinner or something."

It may be the fans who'll have problems this month as favorite players scatter to represent home countries.

"I've watched Lisa Leslie since college," said Julie Rodriguez, a 49-year-old Storm fan from Gresham, Ore. "And I'll be pulling for the Australians because I cannot cheer for a team with Lisa Leslie on it. It's no disrespect to Sue, or coach Donovan, but I can't. Lisa Leslie is the dirtiest player in the league, and she isn't the best player on the planet anymore. She has never been as good as Lauren at a like age."

It's a position Ken Davis, 38, can relate to. He moved to Seattle from Long Beach, Calif., last year and subsequently swapped his WNBA allegiance from the Sparks to the Storm. He said he will still support Team USA while hoping Leslie, the all-time leading Olympic scorer for American women (282 points), doesn't shine.

	AP Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks is Team USA's leading Olympic scorer.

But Leslie, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, is Team USA's go-to player. Her rematch with Jackson that ended with the famous words, "You can keep the hair, I'll take the gold (medal)" at the Sydney Games is one of the most anticipated matchups. Since Australia and Team USA play in separate groups, Web sites are counting down days until the gold-medal game Aug. 28 — the only place the countries can meet.

"The star quality and loyalty is very high (in Los Angeles)," said Davis, who has courtside seats at KeyArena. "Being this close and watching the faces, I can see the showboating. They can't see it at all (in Los Angeles); it's almost as if they're cheering for blood as long as the Sparks win."

Suspected elbows and attitude aside, it has to be the bows Leslie wears in her hair every game that set fans off.

The twine of red and blue or Sparks purple-and-gold ribbon that seemingly don't mesh on a 32-year-old woman might make fans forget Leslie holds the Olympic single-game scoring record (35). Or that she paced the unbeaten U.S. team in Sydney, averaging 15.8 points.

"I think it's her trademark, her thing," said Olympic guard Diana Taurasi. "It's funny, during the Olympic tryouts, Swin Cash got a bad perm, and Lisa had a extra bow for her to distract from the hair. I think she's trying to make it happen. But (my) messy bun has really caught on. You see the foreign version with the double-ponytail bun. I'll take a little credit for it if there's some money involved."

Team USA has what Donovan called "a lucky draw" since strong medal contenders Brazil, Russia, and Australia are lumped in "Group A." America opens against New Zealand, and its strongest projected opponent is the Czech Republic. South Korea also is in Team USA's "Group B," but it will play without its leading players, including former Storm forward Jung Sun-Min, because of injuries.

That doesn't mean Team USA should clear a space for its fifth gold medal in the past six Games.

"We've got to win it first!" said U.S. captain Dawn Staley, a two-time Olympian. "The other two are at home collecting dust. The memories are the things that I keep with me and are dear to me. The gold medals are something tangible, but the journey that led to that is what really matters."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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