Storm look to "Mama" for guidance

Shaunzinski Gortman felt awful.

Doctors told her it was the stomach flu. All she knew was it wasn't the way she wanted to start Storm training camp. Then a sweet offer passed her way.

"When I was sick, Wendy [Palmer] was like, 'If you need something, just call Mama, but don't call after 10 p.m.,' " Gortman remembered her new teammate saying. "She's a great person to follow after. She motivates you and you just look at her and you want to work hard because she works hard all the time."

Before coach Anne Donovan swapped her Storm responsibilities to coach Team USA this past offseason, her sole focus was securing a veteran leader. Sure, the Storm has experienced players Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, who have excelled internationally and in the WNBA. But Donovan has struggled to get assertive leadership out of both.

With the absence of older players Kamila Vodichkova, Alicia Thompson, Tully Bevilaqua and Sheri Sam the past two seasons, more pressure was placed on Bird, 25, and Jackson, 24, who are reluctant to lead outside of certain situations or by example.

Jackson has had a particularly tough time making a dent with the newcomers this season due to an injury that has sidelined her for the opening of training camp.

"It's hard for her and it's hard for the kids to say, 'OK, that's our leader over there,' " Storm guard Betty Lennox said. "Injuries sometimes happen that way and I just think it's difficult on both ends — for her to be on the sideline and not be able to play and for them to not be able to play with her."

Yet, you wouldn't know the Storm is without guidance. Lennox is vocal, and Palmer has effortlessly slipped into being the person rookies surround to ask about camp and the league in general.

Palmer, 31, is one of eight remaining players from the WNBA's inaugural season in 1997. Assigned as an elite player that season to the now defunct Utah Starzz, she has played for four different teams, starting 210 of her 272 games.

For the Storm, Palmer will be a backup power forward. But Donovan's insistence to get the player signed to a two-year contract was for her leadership.

And the coach noticed a difference the first day.

"She's such a solid person," Donovan said. "She brings everything to the table that I thought she would as an experienced player, a hungry player. She's a veteran who's got poise and the ability to really have good chemistry with all the younger kids and the older players as well. Everything we had hoped for is already starting to pay dividends."

Leading is natural for Palmer, who served as an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University. Every team, even when she starred at Virginia, referred to her as "Mama" or "Grandma."

"One of the things that I feel is that you can't just make somebody a leader; a leader is born," she said. "If it's in you, it's in you and it's going to come out. You can't just make someone a leader because that's what your team is lacking. If you don't have a natural leader, you're gonna have to go out and find one.

"I welcome the role. It's a role I've taken on many teams, especially last year [in San Antonio], and I'm OK with it."

Palmer's role models weren't ancient philosophers or political figures, either. Just the strong voice of her maternal grandmother, Mary Burton, 87.

Palmer would sit on the porch while her grandmother worked cleaning homes in the South and listened to her wise words. The two were close, even sharing the same "crooked knee" that makes for Palmer's signature gait when she's running the court. Her grandmother's home is where she spent majority of her time while growing up in Timberlake, N.C.

"She'd always inspire me — 'I want you to be better than what I'm doing right now. I want you to go to college, get an education so you can do better things, baby,' " Palmer remembers Burton saying. "She was just so strong, even after my grandfather died, she never stopped. If I can be half the woman she is, I'll be all right."

Funny, the Storm's rookies feel the same about Palmer.

Notes

• Lauren Jackson (left shin) and center Janell Burse (left arm) did not practice Wednesday and are listed as day to day.

• Center Lindsay Taylor entered camp with right Achilles tendinitis and missed half of the three-hour session on Tuesday while Shaunzinski Gortman (stomach flu) returned.

• Center Jordan Adams and guard Leah Metcalf were cut from the roster Wednesday.