Storm
Storm has assortment of offseason tales

By Jayda Evans
Seattle Times staff reporter

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Guard Sue Bird seeks a brighter season after undergoing knee surgery in the offseason.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories Jackson's Russia club behind 2-0 in series Other links Storm roster Storm schedule

They trickled in from all parts of the earth.

Old faces greeted new ones. Familiar faces reacquainted with unseen ones.

Storm training camp opened yesterday, signaling the beginning of the organization's fifth WNBA season. Mixed in with meetings, physicals and paperwork was chatter among the players, who shared stories of where they'd been, what they'd done or simply who they were, before being introduced to the public via the team's media day today.

Here are four of those stories:

Healed Bird

She lives basketball's version of the jet-setting lifestyle.

Storm guard Sue Bird's fling with Jesse Palmer of "The Bachelor" is gossiped about on the Internet, she has traveled to Europe and Cuba as a member of the U.S. national team and she has shared the same television frame with Paris Hilton and P. Diddy.

"He's blinged out," Bird says of the musician's diamond-laced accessories.

Bird isn't setting any fashion trends with her casual jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt look, however. She blended her New York roots into California ease and has had other things on her mind than being a socialite.

Bird injured her left knee early last season, causing her to miss some practices by the end of the team's 18-16 summer. She had arthroscopic surgery on the knee in September and has been rehabilitating in the San Francisco area since.

"There were days when I questioned if I'd be able to come back," Bird said. "It was painful, you know. I have cartilage missing. I have to deal with what hurts and stay away from that."

Playing in Cuba was the hardest. Bird, 23, had just stepped back on the court in January and was training against men when the national team chose her in February as the ninth core member to possibly play in the Athens Olympics.

"I went from nothing to the highest level you can play," she said of joining WNBA stars such as Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie. "In Europe I was pain-free and started to get my confidence back."

By the time the team finished with a domestic tour to wrap up its 13-0 campaign, Bird averaged six assists. Storm coach Anne Donovan, who is an assistant coach with the national team, said her All-Star guard is not 100 percent, but is better than the player who averaged 12.4 points and 6.5 assists last summer.

"Every day I've been thinking about the season and winning the Western Conference," Bird said. "I've been trying to prepare myself to hang in there for that (and the Olympics). I've only played (13) games, so I'm relatively fresh. My plans for training camp are to get my game back, so to speak."

Three's a charm?

	Betty Lennox

Taking a break from her daily routine of working out and lifting weights at the Storm training facility, newly acquired guard Betty Lennox sat down for an interview. Drenched in sweat, the cushy seat in front of a huge window gave Lennox a look at the Space Needle sparkling in sunshine.

"I don't get out much, normally I'm in this gym," said Lennox, with her third WNBA team in as many seasons. "Basketball is my passion. God didn't give me this talent to sit around."

Circumstances have jerked Lennox around, however. The 2000 rookie of the year played for the Miami Sol, which folded after reaching the playoffs in its third season. Lennox was picked up by the Cleveland Rockers in the dispersal draft (third overall) only to see that team fold last fall after reaching the playoffs.

Then the Storm selected her sixth in January's expansion draft. Lennox has been in Seattle since March, training and performing public-speaking duties.

But being victim of two disbanded teams has toyed with the shooter's head. While the league is heading into its eighth season, Lennox knows it can evaporate in a split second.

In fact, this offseason she opted to work for General Motors in Kansas City as a plant manager's assistant rather than travel overseas or focus on training.

"I'm tired of being moved around," said Lennox, a fifth-year veteran who hoped she would be a core member of a WNBA team by this point in her career. "I wanted to establish a life outside of basketball. My playing years are winding down, so I'm planning for my future."

Not that Lennox, who averaged 7.6 points and 16.5 minutes as a Rockers reserve, is taking the summer lightly. Every day she's in the gym dribbling around chairs to hone her skills or playing supervised pickup games with men.

Lennox said her family keeps her grounded. On Dec. 13, her nephew, Quintin Scroggins, 20, committed suicide. Lennox describes him as a 6-foot-4 sweetheart with "hands the size of Shaq."

"He could have played in the NBA," she said. "I'm dedicating my season and career to him. Since going to the funeral and seeing my nephew, I've been more focused. I wake up every morning and don't take for granted that I get to do what I love."

Dwindling space

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Simone Edwards has seen her production decrease. She could end up playing in Europe this summer.

The signs were showing toward the end of last season.

Storm center Simone Edwards sat in a bustling airport in the midst of her team's five-game losing streak and contemplated retirement. One of the team's two remaining original players, she has watched as the team became more talented every summer. Meanwhile, her production has dropped from averaging 7.4 points and starting 27 games in 2001 to averaging 4.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and starting six games last season.

And this season will be the hardest.

The 2004 rookies were high-school freshmen when the WNBA debuted in 1997. Add in their cheaper salaries agreed to in the collective-bargaining agreement signed last season, and veterans like Edwards are on shaky ground entering training camp.

The league-mandated salary cap is $647,000, meaning teams could fill out their rosters based on cost instead of talent and experience. The Storm was under the cap last summer, though, and Donovan traditionally favors veterans over rookies.

"There is always a possibility that I may not be there this season," Edwards said via e-mail. She is the leading rebounder in a first-division Italian league.

"Nothing is guaranteed in life," Edwards wrote. "Coach Donovan will do whatever she has to do to make the Storm successful. I love Seattle and being that I was there with the team from the start, I have my sentimental attachment. I know many people lost confidence in me there, but it started with me losing confidence in myself first. I know what I'm capable of, and so are most of the coaches in Europe and my faithful fans there in Seattle."

Edwards usually plays in Israel, but needed a bigger challenge. Her team, Pantere Basket, is located in Caserta, which is about a 20-minute drive from Naples. Edwards, who is 6-4, doesn't speak Italian, but when a thief tried to swipe her cellphone from her backpack, she knew enough to get the gadget back and pop him in the face.

"He was so frightened," Edwards wrote. "I haven't been doing much since I've been here. The language barrier is also a reason for this. I spend a lot of time on the phone and Internet with my friends. I also turn up the stereo and pretend I'm a pop star."

The Italian league is scheduled to conclude May 8 and Edwards said she'll return immediately afterward. Her focus is the same as most seasons, showing local fans what overseas teams have seen.

"I owe it to myself and my fans to play the way I'm capable of," Edwards wrote. "I need to just play my game and believe in me even if no one else does."

Back again

	Alicia Thompson

This is when she would call her mother.

When things get hairy and Storm free agent Alicia Thompson isn't certain which way things are going, she'd pick up the phone and listen to mom. Mother would tell child to work hard and pray.

But Thompson's mother, Patricia, died three years ago, leaving her to weave through her professional career alone.

"She's always been by my side and is a big part of my basketball career," said Thompson, who ranked second on Texas Tech's all-time scoring list when she was done in 1998. "I called her every day after practice or training camp. Now it's a constant struggle because I want to go home and talk about it with her and I can't."

The New York Liberty originally drafted Thompson, playing her in 19 games before she dropped out of the league. Thompson was picked up by Indiana, where Donovan served as an interim coach in 2000, but after former coach Nell Fortner convinced the forward not to retire, she cut Thompson the day before the 2003 season started.

It was too late to sign with another WNBA team.

"I thought that was real shady," Thompson said.

She spent a year in obscurity, but found refuge in America's other professional women's league. Despite WNBA president Val Ackerman's declaration that the National Women's Basketball League will never officially link as a developmental league, the NWBL grooms wannabe WNBA players and sharpens skills.

Thompson, who averaged 9.1 points and 5.9 rebounds for the NWBL's Houston Stealth, joins players such as former Storm guards Jamie Redd (San Antonio Silver Stars) and Felicia Ragland (Houston Comets) as those who didn't play in the WNBA last season but have returned.

Said Thompson: "You go play in the NWBL and get noticed, step up your game, and then a coach or scout says, 'Wow, she looks a lot better.' "

Thompson is still hesitant about her left knee. She has had three surgeries and is conscious of lateral movement. But she's focused on making the Storm roster, the only team she wanted to play for this season.

"I'm not a person who's selfish," said Thompson, who is known for cooking elaborate meals for teammates. "I'm going to do anything I can to make this team successful."

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

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company