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Suzy Batkovic was a typical WNBA rookie, they were answered on her very first WNBA basket. Shortly after checking into the Storm's game last Tuesday at Connecticut, Batkovic was confronted by the league's biggest obstacle - 7-2 Sun center 
Margo Dydek, the WNBA's all-time leading shot blocker. Batkovic went right by and around Dydek for a left-hand layup.
Welcome to the WNBA - not in the usual meaning of the phrase.
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Chamique Holdsclaw and Spanish legend Amaya Valdemoro). Batkovic also started at center on the silver-medal winning Opals during the 2004 Olympics Games, averaging 7.1 points per game.
Performances like that led Storm Coach Anne Donovan to declare that, had Batkovic been in the 2005 WNBA Draft, she would have been the top pick overall. Unfortunately for other teams, Batkovic wasn't. Instead, the Storm was able to nab her with a second-round pick (22nd overall) in the 2003 Draft. Only nine other players drafted that year remain active in the WNBA, including none taken after Batkovic.
As a result, there was a sense of urgency for the Storm to get Batkovic to the WNBA. She was drafted with the knowledge she wasn't coming over in 2003, but the Storm hoped to get her in 2004, if only for the stretch run after the Olympics. Last winter, Donovan wasn't counting on Batkovic, but she was pleasantly surprised when Batkovic decided to play in 2005.
"I've always said that I wanted to come," Batkovic said before making her WNBA debut. "I told Anne and the Seattle Storm that I wasn't ready to come until after the Olympics in Athens and I still wanted to think about it. I was more than halfway through the Spanish season and I was like, 'I think I want to do it.' I didn't say anything for a bit; I thought I'd just sit on it and see how I felt. It felt right. I think I'm ready for it."
Batkovic is good friends with Storm forward 
Lauren Jackson, her teammate on the Australian National Team, and there was suspicion that Jackson played a key role in Batkovic's decision to come play in Seattle, but Batkovic dispelled that notion.
"Loz actually didn't really sell me that much, believe it or not," she said. "I told her when she'd call or we speak, 'Loz, I don't want to hear it.' I'm the kind of individual that when I make a decision, it's on myself. I'll go back and talk to some of my really close friends at home and my family and talk it over. They'll let me get things off my chest. At the end of the day, the decision's on me. Loz is cool; she understands that. I asked her a few general questions - what the place is like, things like that. I said, 'You're going to make me go the other way and I won't want to come.'"
(When she was asked what role she played by storm.wnba.com in April, Jackson said, "Oh, I'd say a little bit. Not much.")
While Jackson might not have done any convincing, there's little doubt that the presence of a close friend on the roster helped make the decision easier and is easing the transition for Batkovic.
"We've known each other since we were little kids, so we can be away for a year or six months and still just come back and we've got the same friendship, nothing's changed," she explained. "We just sort of fit right in. It's nice. It makes it much easier to come to the states."
Donovan has certainly seen that chemistry on the court.
"I think there's a comfort zone there," said Donovan. "There's no learning curve. They've played together so long. That makes it more enjoyable."
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"Their high-low game is so much better than what we've had," said Donovan. "It helps us stretch the defense out a little bit, because Suzy can do a little bit more up there in the high post than some of our other post players. She's capable of shooting the shot or putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim. Her versatility really does help."
Batkovic enjoys working in the high post.
"That's one thing I'm looking forward to," she said. "Fortunately, the two years in France, it was good, I had Ann Wauters. You can throw that ball up, she vacuum cleans it up. Obviously not as well as Loz - Loz is an incredible player. This season in Spain, unfortunately I wasn't able to do that with the player I had. She was really big, but her hands, to catch the ball, it was really tough. So I stopped doing it. I loved that the last few days, throwing that ball up."
After completing her season in Spain, Batkovic took a couple of weeks to return home to Australia and see her family and friends, the only opportunity she'll have to do so this year. She arrived in Seattle on June 3, two days before the Storm left for the East Coast and one of their longest road trips of the season. With only one practice under her belt, Batkovic was thrown into the lineup against the defending Eastern Conference Champions and scored six points. The next night in Detroit, Batkovic had nine points and seven rebounds in just 18 minutes of action. She did it without knowing almost any of the Storm's offense.
"The first game, she was like, 'Hey, mate, help me out out there. I only know this (play) and this one, so try not to call too many others,'" said 
Sue Bird. "I can already tell she's really getting adjusted, she's figuring it out, learning our players, our style."
In addition to learning the Storm's offense, Batkovic has also been unable to adjust to the change in time zones and get a good night's sleep. The Storm's week and a half in Seattle should help in that regard, while Batkovic will also be able to get four more practices under her belt by the time Connecticut comes to town on June 22.
"She's on sleeping pills," said Donovan. "She'll sleep at night and get on a time zone. She hasn't been on a time zone. No matter where we've been, she has really struggled to get sleep. I think now she can get some body rest, really stay in one place for a week and get her body together. Then, good practice time. As much as players don't want to practice, Suzy realizes she needs those reps - with Lauren, with 
Janell (Burse), with our perimeter. Everybody can figure out what her strengths are and where we can best use her."
When Batkovic gets settled in, expect big things.
