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Sue Bird went down with two broken bones in her face in Connecticut on June 7, the Storm lost more than just an All-Star point guard. Seattle also lost a leader, not an inconsiderable thing in a season when the Storm was looking more to Bird for leadership after veterans 
Tully Bevilaqua, Sheri Sam and Kamila Vodichkova departed as free agents. Into the void stepped forward 
Lauren Jackson.
"She had to step up," says Storm Coach Anne Donovan. "We had her and 
Betty (Lennox) as our returning starters from last year, so it really fell on Lauren's shoulders to keep everybody positive, to keep everybody competitive, to not settle for just getting through without Sue but instead stay really motivated to win. That means organization, it means discipline - those intangible traits that Sue provides, and Lauren to some degree, but Lauren was the only one who could give it to us. I think that was big."
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Tanisha Wright at point guard.
The youngest players in a veteran starting lineup that included Lennox, Sam and Vodichkova last season, Bird and Jackson did not need to play a leadership role. With the Storm's roster getting younger, that has changed this season, and Donovan identified leadership as a key for her All-Stars before the year.
"We lost a huge amount of leadership last year in Sheri and a couple of other players, so I think I've tried to definitely step up and take that role a little bit more," says Jackson.
Donovan has definitely seen the results.
"Her chemistry with Betty in particular and with 
Janell (Burse) in the post, it's new chemistry," she said. "It's different chemistry than last year. It's real comfortable to look out there and see Betty miss a shot, Lauren's going over there to pat her on the back. It's different. It's really been initiated by Lauren, I think."
Leadership is another step in Jackson's development as a player on and off the court. Storm fans have had the opportunity to see Jackson grow from a feisty 20-year-old who led the WNBA in technical fouls as a rookie to the MVP two seasons ago. Jackson's increasing maturity is evident in how she responded to a slow shooting start to this season. Jackson has hit just 22.2% of her 3-point attempts thus far after shooting a cool 45.2% last season, but she still leads the WNBA in its per-game Efficiency Rating.
"This is a girl who could have been frustrated with her shooting percentages," says Donovan. "She's not used to shooting the ball like she is this season. Instead, what she's done, she's focused on rebounding. She's picked up in a different category to make up for not being as efficient offensively. Much maturity there, to really take your focus into somewhere else, use it positively in a different area."
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Jackson's 9.5 rebounds per game are the best mark of her career, just topping her 2003 MVP campaign, and tops in the WNBA thus far. As for her offense, while Jackson isn't quite on her game, it's telling that she's still fifth in the league in points per game (17.8).
It's impressive, given Jackson is still working her way back from off-season ankle surgery, a process that was slowed when Jackson was bothered by groin injuries during training camp. After struggling in the Storm's opener while playing small forward, shooting 2-for-13 from 3-point range and seeing her consecutive double-figures scoring streak snapped at 84 games, Jackson's conditioning came under scrutiny from the local media.
A week and a half later, Jackson earned her first Player of the Week honor of 2005 after recording a pair of double-doubles in two Storm wins. Suddenly, her conditioning was a non-issue.
While Jackson is still bothered by the shin pain that has plagued her throughout her career, she otherwise feels great.
"I'm getting back and I think I'm pretty well in shape," says Jackson. "Physically, I feel quite good."
From a maturity standpoint, she's never been better.
