I had been perusing the Detroit Shock media guide at the beginning of the 2005 season, looking for stories to do on the players, when I came across Ruth Riley’s page. Raised in Macy, Indiana and attended North Miami High School. She played basketball, volleyball and ran track. An older sister, Rachel and a younger brother Jacob, her mom, Sharon Riley raised the kids.

Attended Notre Dame and led the Fighting Irish to the NCAA Championship in 2001, her senior season. Won the Naismith Award as the Associate Press’ Player of the Year that year. Scored more than 2,000 points and grabbed more than 1,000 rebounds in her college career.

Ruth was drafted by the Miami Sol in 2001 where she started the final 20 games of the season and the team went 15-5. Was selected by the Shock with the first overall pick in the WNBA Dispersal Draft in 2003. Was the 2003 WNBA Finals MVP, averaging 14.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in series. Was a member of the 2003 WNBA Championship team. Won an Olympic gold medal in 2004.

Okay, got all that but still no story. I wanted something more personal, something other than the basketball career. I went back to my files to check out the player pages that we gathered during the beginning of the season.

Ruth’s Favorite Vacation Spot: South Beach in Miami. No budget to go down there for an on-the-beach interview. Ruth’s Favorite Sport other than Basketball: beach volleyball. Laimbeer would kill me if she got hurt playing two’s on the sand around here. Ruth’s Favorite Food: salads and sushi…

You know those “aha!” moments you have in life? Something just clicked. The light went on. Hey! I like sushi. I have had sushi down in Royal Oak. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to my sushi. The idea for “Sushi with Ruthie” was born.

We decided to meet for lunch at Little Tree in downtown Royal Oak. We had Jackie Begin the Shock’s media relations assistant, and (we later found out) a sushi rookie, join us. I wanted to sit down with Ruth, one of the Shock’s most popular players, for some raw fish, some frank conversation and some downtown Royal Oak atmosphere.

I wasn’t disappointed. What I was, however, was late. Exactly 11 minutes and Ruth and Jackie both let me know it. It was like they choreographed it when they both pointed to their watches upon my arrival. Hey, I had to get some gas for the car. No excuses…Ruth wouldn’t allow it.

The restaurant wasn’t real crowded and after two bowls of pea pods, I had explained what I wanted to accomplish with the story: just a discussion on a variety of topics, some basketball related, others life related. I wanted our readers to get to know her and use sushi as the vehicle. Even I smiled at how ridiculous this sounded.

She seemed to relax, which continued after we found out that we had a “rookie” at our table. Jackie had never had sushi, in fact she had never had pea pods, and told us that she had been looking forward to opening a new window with the raw fish. This was going to be fun.

I started with the obvious…the 2005 season. At the time, the Shock were 11-14 and had just lost a game against Charlotte they had no business of losing. The playoffs were definitely in jeopardy but Ruth expressed confidence that they would pull together and would get to the post season. She liked the recent addition of Katie Smith and found it surprising that the Shock could potentially have five All-Stars on the floor at one time.

It prompted a question about friendships with players on other teams. I had a theory that players in the NBA sometimes don’t go at each other as hard as players in the past used to, basically because all the players are friends, off the court. I asked Ruth if she ever felt that way about friends she has on other WNBA teams.

“No way,” the 6’5” center told me bluntly. “It never crosses my mind not to go at them. I’m very competitive and when opposing players come down the lane or challenge me, I have no problem going after them. I’m not trying to take them out or anything, I’m just going to play them hard. I would expect nothing less from them.”

It shows in her aggressive style. She is currently second on the team in overall personal fouls, trailing only Cheryl Ford.

“The thing is though that we have a reputation as the Bad Girls, which probably comes from Bill (Laimbeer) and Rick (Mahorn) and that poster (Bad Girls giveaway poster depicting Ruth, Cheryl, Barb Farris and Kara Braxton in similar poses to the famous Bad Boys poster Laimbeer and Mahorn from Rolling Stone) doesn’t help,” Riley said. “It’s okay, because we definitely play aggressive. It’s just sometimes our reputation seems to precede us.”

We were politely interrupted by the waitress, ready to take our order.

Maybe it was my perception or maybe it was my anticipation or maybe it was that my expectations were too great. But frankly, folks, I was a bit disappointed in Ruth’s selections.

Three words to describe Ruth’s choices for sushi: rolls, rolls, rolls!

How safe. How simple. How UN-adventurous. I had visions of fish roe mixed with heaps of wasabi. I had in my mind some eel wrapped in seaweed. I had an idea that we would look at the menu and order at least one of the craziest things neither of us had ever tried (Jackie didn’t count because of her rookie status). But no…the kid from Macy stayed safe and ordered a California roll (with shrimp added), a Rainbow roll (which included seven types of fish, mostly tuna) and a Little Tree roll that was basically a California roll wrapped in seaweed.

And then Ruth told me she doesn’t put wasabi in her soy sauce dish AND she doesn’t really like the ginger that they serve with your sushi. I was crushed.

I made a speedy recovery, however, and made sure we had some of the more exotic pieces on our plate, mostly for Jackie because Ruth said she wouldn’t eat it. I got some pieces of yellowtail, a couple pieces of King crab, two pieces of shrimp and a few pieces of eel. A real trooper, Jackie said she would try them all.

The conversation turned to Ruth’s past.

“I was always a good student in high school,” she told us. “My grade point average was around 3.9. I don’t really recall, but I think I had a couple of B’s. I really liked Social Studies and wanted to be class valedictorian. My sister Rachel was her class valedictorian. I didn’t make it, but Rachel didn’t have basketball taking up her time like I did.

“I went to Notre Dame because it was close to home, only about an hour and 15 minutes, and had great academic programs as well as athletics. The academics were really important to me. Notre Dame also appealed to my Christian faith.”

I took a shot and asked her if she had always been tall. I say that I took a shot because a lot times, particularly with women, athletes can be sensitive about their height. Let’s face it, they stand out and immediately people stare.

“I was the longest baby born in Kansas at 25 inches,” Ruth said matter-of-factly. “And it just never stopped. I was always the tallest girl in my class and went through the awkward years. I was lanky and uncoordinated for a while, until I grew into my body. It changed in college as I got more coordinated, practiced hard and became more confident.”

I asked her if she gets “the question” all the time.

“It’s usually the first thing they ask me, ‘How tall are you?’ I’ve really gotten used to it and I’m pretty comfortable with it. What has helped is being with the team most of the time. We have girls who are 6’6”, 6’3” and 6’2” so I don’t really stand out.”

What about life on the road? Not only do you travel for the Shock games, during the off-season, you travel the country and the world. How do you handle it?

“Usually on the plane, I am the one who falls asleep first, so I’m quiet and the time goes by fast. If I can’t sleep, I bring my laptop or my iPod and either work on business-related stuff or listen to the iPod.”

Business stuff? What kind of business stuff?

“Well, I’m the vice president of the WNBA Player’s Union,” Ruth told us “so I have to keep up to date on some of the issues facing the union and the league. I also work with a national agency (Octagon) and a local Detroit agency (ISP). They set up my appearances, they take care of my Web site and they put my basketball camps together. They pursue sponsorship or representation opportunities for me. I will be doing something with Aeropostle very soon and of course, I have a shoe deal with Nike. I really enjoy the business side of this sport and am excited by many of the opportunities that are presented to me. I like to stay on top of these things.”

Ruth owns a condo in Miami and says that property ownership is a must.

“The tax benefits are ridiculous. I can’t believe how many players don’t own property, if for nothing else to alleviate their tax situations. I also contribute to the WNBA’s 401K program. I really try to study this aspect of being a WNBA player. I have been making a great number of connections, just being involved with the Shock and the WNBA. I know that these connections are going to help me when I’m done with basketball.”

The wooden palate of food came and it was time for SUSHI 101 with Ruth Riley.

Chopsticks, we told our rookie Jackie, “are essential.” You can’t eat sushi with a fork and have any sense of self-respect. They are easy. The bottom one remains still while the top one acts as a hinge. And yes, you do have to put the whole piece of sushi in your mouth. No cutting it up and no biting it in half. It’s all or nothing.

We pointed out the various rolls and told Jackie what was in each of them. Then I pointed to the pieces and gave Jackie the rundown of what each was. No, the black stuff wasn’t electrical tape, I told our innocent newbie…that’s seaweed.

As we were pouring the soy sauce into the small rectangular bowls provided, Jackie pointed to the glob of green stuff and the pink leaves next to it on the plate.

“Wasabi and ginger,” Ruth told her. “I hate wasabi (my bubble was deflating) and I don’t really like ginger (totally burst). The wasabi is really, really spicy and will make your nose run and your eyes water. And the ginger is used to cleanse your palate for the next piece of sushi.”

At that point, I grabbed a big chunk of wasabi on the end of my sticks and dumped it into my soy sauce.

“Mmmmmmmm,” I said as I ate the excess wasabi off the end of my sticks, my eyes beginning to water and my nose beginning to run. “This is the best stuff in the world.”

So what’s on your iPod, I asked Ruth.

“I like a lot of stuff from the ‘70s and ‘80s and I just listen to whatever I get from the downloads that Swin (Cash) and Deanna (Nolan) have. I also like country and the more mellow R&B rap. Tupac was one of my favorites.”

“Is he dead or is he alive?” Jackie asked.

“I think he is really dead,” Ruth said. “It would be tough to hide for that long or be underground. Yeah, I know what all the songs say, but I think he’s dead.”

Ruth never touched the pieces of sushi, but instead stayed true to her rolls, dipping them into eel sauce and then into sesame seeds. Jackie, on the other hand, dug in to the crab and the shrimp, although she scraped all the wasabi off and never put any into her soy sauce. She was getting better with the chopsticks, although you could still see that she was a rookie. Me…I was all over the eel.

And how about the last book you read, Ruth?

“Charles Barkely’s book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man,” Ruth said. “He is very up front about racism in America and he interviews a bunch of people for it. He talks very candidly about racism from an athlete’s perspective. I found it to be fascinating.”

How about the last movie you saw?

“Million Dollar Baby and I used a whole box of Kleenex on it. I usually cry at movies, a little at least, but that one made me just bawl.”

Favorite movie of all time? Without hesitation, Ruth blurted out Hoosiers.

“My school was like Hickory in the movie. There were 83 people in my graduating class and we had a one-class system in Indiana. The year after my senior year, Indiana went to different classes based upon size of the school.”

The sushi was disappearing and I was getting full.

What about other sports, Ruth? What do you play?

“I am learning to play golf from Bill (Laimbeer),” she said. “We go to those charity scrambles and he teaches me how to hit the ball. He’s a really good teacher.

“I also am learning how to play tennis. I have had a couple lessons and I can hit it, but I really have trouble with my serve. Once I get that down, I think I’ll be dangerous. And I play beach volleyball when I’m down in Miami. I think it’s great when you block a guy’s hit and everyone around the court goes ‘Ooooohhhh, she just packed you, dude’. I love doing that.”

The waitress brought the bill over and we were just finishing up. Jackie had performed admirably for her first attempt and said she liked most of the stuff. She said she would definitely have sushi again. No better testament than that. Ruth had eaten most of the rolls and was ready to get out.

Last question: Do you like living in Detroit?

“I like having a downtown area that I can walk around,” she told me. “Royal Oak is great because Main Street is fun. Birmingham has a nice downtown and I like walking that. I like places where you can shop, grab a cup of coffee, maybe pop into a restaurant and be outside a lot. We’ve found some places like that in the Detroit area. But it’s tough to beat South Beach in Miami.”

And the people of metro Detroit?

“The fans are great and people around here are great,” Ruth said. “This the mid-West and I grew up in the mid-West, so I know the kind of people: friendly, helpful and polite. I like that and I love the Shock fans. They are so great to us. We all want to reward them with wins and another championship.”

Sushi with Ruthie…..what a great idea.