 A healthy Bird is poised for a breakout 2004. Jeff Reinking/WNBAE/Getty |
Late in the Storm's third game of the 2003 season, the home opener against the Los Angeles Sparks, everything was going to plan. Bird opened the season with 19 points and 10 assists in a loss at Houston, and, with 22 points and seven assists, was controlling the game against Los Angeles.
Then, with 1:12 remaining in the game and the Storm leading 68-63, Bird was taken out of the game. A murmur went through the crowd. Was this a defensive substitution to let backup Tully Bevilaqua hound Sparks All-Star Nikki Teasley? The answer was provided when the Storm got the ball back and Bird remained on the bench. She would attempt to return to the game, missing a potential game-winner as the clock expired in regulation and limping around for 48 seconds of overtime, but when Bird limped back to the bench, it was clear that something was wrong.
A day later, the diagnosis came down: patellar chondromalacia, possibly related to the ACL tear Bird suffered during her freshman year at UConn.
The following Tuesday, Bird was back on the court, gritting through the pain to play against Sacramento, but it was clear she was not the same player. That was likely the worst game of Bird's career, as she shot 1-for-9 from the field and committed eight turnovers. But she was on the court, and the Storm won 70-56.
There were times during the remainder of the 2003 season when Bird's injury faded to the background because her play seemed so uninhibited. On July 3, she became only the fifth player in WNBA history to have a 20-point, 10-assist game in a victory over Washington. Two nights later, Bird had a season-high 27 points at Los Angeles.
At the same time, a painful reminder of the injury was only a misstep or a bad fall away for Bird throughout the season. That was the case on July 18 at Detroit, when Bird played only eight minutes in the second half because of a flareup of the chondromalacia. In Minnesota two days later, Bird started but could play only three minutes before the pain became too much for her to go on.
"I can't even run," Bird said after the game. "And now I'm hurting the team."
When the Storm returned home, however, Bird was back on the court and close to normal, handing out eight assists as the Storm beat the New York Liberty.
At the end of the season, it would have been difficult for an outside observer to tell that Bird had been affected by the injury. She played in all 34 games, ranked fourth in the WNBA in minutes played, was second in the league in assists and, despite losing a couple of points per game off her average, first amongst point guards in scoring. For the second consecutive year, Bird was picked for the All-WNBA first team.
Insiders realized just how much Bird was affected by the injury, having had the opportunity to directly compare Bird as a rookie with Bird in year two and watch her struggle with the injury on a day-to-day basis.
"She showed incredible grit this season to play through her injuries, fight on night in and night out whether or not she felt good," said Coach Anne Donovan at season's end. "She knew we needed her leadership out on the floor and her play helped us win games we could not have won without her.
"To see Sue healthy and enjoying the game again, the way she can when she’s healthy, I really look forward to that."
That is where Bird is now, a week into the Storm's 2004 training camp. If Bird is not 100% after having the knee cleaned out and rehabilitating it this winter, it has not yet been evident from her performance during scrimmages. She looks like the same take-charge, in-control player she was the last two seasons, only with added quickness and mobility.
"Sue's a different player than she was last summer," Donovan said last week. "She's confident and she feels good about that."
Asked to name the most impressive player in camp yesterday, Donovan immediately came up with Bird.
These exciting developments beg the important question - if Bird was an All-WNBA performer on one good knee, just how good can she be this year? And how dangerous is the Storm if it has Bird scoring around 15 points per game, Lauren Jackson continuing to be one of the league's leading scorers (or the leader, as she was last season) and an improved supporting cast with Betty Lennox and Sheri Sam, a pair of career double-digit scorers? The possibilities are mind-boggling.
Where the Storm may feel Bird's presence more than any other place is at the end of close games. Traditionally, post players like Jackson - though her perimeter ability helps - are not considered as effective in these situations as guards like Bird. And as a rookie, Bird was nothing short of sensational in clutch moments.
Bird first demonstrated her clutch skill in the Storm's third game of her rookie season, against Minnesota. Bird dominated that game down the stretch, scoring 19 points after the eight-minute mark of the second half as the Storm overcame a deficit to win in overtime.
As the Storm was driving towards the playoffs, Bird was everywhere. She scored five points in the final minute of regulation as the Storm beat the Sparks in Los Angeles. Then, in the most important game in franchise history, an elimination battle with the Portland Fire that decided the fourth seed in the playoffs for all intents and purposes, Bird scored a career-high 33 points, seven of them in the final 150 seconds.
If the Storm can count on performances like that from Bird, it will make a huge difference. Last season, the team was 11-6 in games decided by 10 points or more. In close games, decided by five points or less, the Storm was .500, 5-5. Turn a couple of those narrow losses into victories, and the Storm's 2003 season is very different indeed.
As long as Bird is healthy, optimism in the Storm's training camp is well-justified. So too is fear around the WNBA.
