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Sue Bird was back in Seattle and at practice Monday at The Furtado Center. Bird watched from the sidelines wearing street clothes and looked at tape to begin preparing for when the WNBA resumes play on Thursday. For Bird, it was a quick turnaround after arriving back in Seattle Sunday afternoon.
"I'm alright," she said. "Usual, normal jetlag."
After Bird gets a good night's sleep or two, the next step will be getting back in WNBA mode after spending the last month with her USA teammates with one goal on her mind: winning gold. That accomplished, her thoughts turn back to leading the Storm to the playoffs.
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That enthusiasm hasn't been dampened by last week's announcement that teammate 
Lauren Jackson will miss the next 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery this week on her injured right ankle. When Jackson missed the last five Storm games before the Olympic break, Bird stepped up as the team's leading scorer and the team went 3-2.
"It's the same as when she wasn't here for those five games," said Bird. "I know Lauren is a tremendous player and she's definitely going to be missed, but we still have a lot of talent on this team. With eight games left, we're still in position to obviously make the playoffs and hopefully finish high in the West and see what happens from there."
Though Bird and Jackson were both in Beijing, their busy schedules made it difficult to meet up on a regular basis. Instead, they stayed in contact largely via Bird's usual preferred medium, text message. Their paths crossed in the gold-medal game, when Bird and the U.S. faced Jackson's Australian Opals. It was the third straight final matchup in the Olympics between the two countries, and again Australia was denied gold.
"I'm sure they wanted to play better and their whole team was disappointed," Bird said. "We just briefly talked after the game. I know she's going to come back here probably after her surgery, so see her then and that's pretty much how we ended it."
As painful as the loss was for Jackson and company, winning decisively and going 8-0 was very meaningful for the USA. In Bird's first experience as starting point guard in the 2006 FIBA World Championships, Russia upset the U.S. in the semifinals, ending a 50-game international winning streak. That loss ended up serving as motivation going into the Olympics.
"There was a lot of talk about, 'This is the year to beat the U.S.' and 'The world is catching up,' and rightfully so - we lost in '06 in Brazil," said Bird. "That was definitely both a good and a bad thing. A bad thing in that we lost, but a good thing in that it woke us up a little bit. The way I view it, I think the rest of the world has caught up in their first six or seven players but they haven't caught up with our depth. That was the key for us. We literally played 11 and 12 players every single game. It was just a wave constantly coming at you. I don't know that other teams in the world right now can keep up with that."
Bird continued to praise the USA's depth when asked who had impressed her with their play in Beijing. The first three players Bird named - center Sylvia Fowles, guard Kara Lawson and forward Tamika Catchings - were all reserves.
It wasn't all business for Bird in Beijing. The women's team supported their gold-winning male counterparts by attending each of their games, and the players took in the Great Wall during a day off. Bird enjoyed the entire experience.
"China was awesome," she said. "The venues were amazing, everyone was super, super nice. There was never any security threats. I know there was a tragedy with the volleyball coach's in-laws, which was absolutely terrible. Other than that, you never felt in harm's way at all. Overall, I thought it was a great Olympics from opening ceremonies to the end. Got to see some events, got to meet some cool people ... I had a great time."
So, will Bird go for a third gold medal in 2012 in London?
"I think it's one of those things where you cross that bridge when you get there," she said. "Four years seems far away, but I know speaking from last Olympics to now, it goes by like that. Next step for USA Basketball will be World Championships, and we'll see what happens from there."
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