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Wendy Palmer joined an exclusive WNBA club, becoming the 16th player in league history to score her 3,000th career point. A second-quarter basket in the paint got Palmer to 3,000.
The milestone came exactly one year after another important day in Palmer's career. On June 2, 2006, Palmer suffered the Achilles injury that forced her to undergo season-ending surgery and embark upon a difficult rehabilitation that still is not entirely complete.
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"There's a lot of emotions, because I remember that time, but I looked at it as a positive. Instead of getting all down and frustrated, look where I am a year later. I wouldn't have thought I would have been here last year at this time. It's a positive. My life is moving forward."
A couple of weeks ago, it might have been difficult for Palmer to think of the anniversary of her Achilles injury as a positive. Ten-plus months away from WNBA-caliber basketball proved a challenge for Palmer when she returned to the court for training camp. Palmer described feeling like she had two right legs and was frustrated with what seemed like the slow pace of her rehab.
Palmer has decided to avoid attaching a percentage of the way back she is in her recovery, but she is not yet 100%. Still, she has been effective for the Storm in limited minutes as a reserve. Palmer is averaging 17.1 points and 13.3 rebounds per 40 minutes while shooting 60% from the field. She's starting to feel like herself.
"I'm not here at 8:00 for treatment in the morning before practice," Palmer said. "I feel better. Things are coming along. I have so many bright days now. I don't feel like, 'Am I ever going to come back?' I know I'm going to come back - I'm just waiting for it to click. It is clicking, my teammates say, 'Wendy, you look so much better.' But I'm always the hardest on myself."
When Palmer's season ended, she was just 16 points shy of 3,000 for her WNBA career. Returning to reach that mark could be considered an important milestone not only in her career but also in her recovery. For Storm Coach 
Anne Donovan, Palmer's lengthy and successful career also reflects her ability to stay up with an improved league.
"In the early stages of the WNBA, I think the league was not super-strong," said Donovan. "There were a lot of good players and then there were a lot of players who were weeded out pretty quickly. So for her to be able to survive and transition into what I think is a very competitive league now 1-12 on a roster and be able to perform at the level she does, it just speaks to how valuable she is."
For Palmer herself, the importance of reaching 3,000 career points was overshadowed by her single-minded devotion to one goal this season: winning the WNBA Championship that has eluded her during the first 10 years of her career. Personal goals aren't important to Palmer at this stage of her career.
"I really didn't have any thoughts, because we were losing," said Palmer. "Honestly, I was more concerned with the win. I knew it was coming up. (Storm PR Manager) Jennifer (Carroll) actually told me after I got hurt last year that I had a certain amount to go. It is what it is. Maybe one day I'll sit back and look at it. It's an elite club - I think 16. It's a neat honor."
At age 32, and having outlasted almost everyone who played with and against her during the WNBA's inaugural season (she is one of just seven players remaining from that group), Palmer can see the end of her career in sight. That serves as an incredible source of motivation. "For me, there's no tomorrow," she said. I just play hard. That's what I think. That's how I take every day. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know that I have today and I'm going to give it everything I've got. You can't play as if there's a tomorrow. You've got to play hard, because you never know.
"June 2 last year, I would have never known I was going to be out."
June 2, 2006 was one of the toughest days of Palmer's career. Because the Storm lost, June 2, 2007, was hardly perfect, but it will be memorable nonetheless.
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