Storm dig in for a shot at something special
One moment, there was Sue Bird, cute as a button, pony tail bobbing, the poster girl of the Seattle Storm and the WNBA.
And then in a flash, in the time it takes to smash a nose into another person`s chin, The Face of the Franchise transformed into an awful expression of agony as Bird sprinted off the KeyArena floor clutching a broken beak, blood flowing and tears streaming.
Ahh, playoff basketball. There will be better days for Bird, a tough competitor whose girl-next-door looks belie an intensity and drive that have taken her to NCAA championships, an Olympic gold medal and now the WNBA conference finals.
Despite Bird`s knockout blow in the first two minutes, Monday night was as good as it`s gotten so far for the Storm, who rallied without their star guard to beat the Minnesota Lynx and win a playoff series for the first time in franchise history.
Maybe the aptly named Storm learned something here. Sometimes the best things in life come with a little pain and perseverance. Sometimes you have to overcome adversity in order to learn more about yourself.
This week the Storm learned they can win a huge game while their leader sits in the training room trying to stop a broken nose from bleeding.
``We`ve been through a lot this year,`` Bird said, still dripping blood two hours after her collision with former Olympian Teresa Edwards. ``We played without Betty (Lennox) for a while. We`ve played without Lauren (Jackson). We`re tough. We`ve been through a lot, on and off the court together. And that`s a championship team. Every team has to go through something in order to be good.``
Jackson, the reigning MVP of the league, lost her grandmother last week. Teammates again wore black tape around their biceps in tribute to their teammate`s loss in Monday`s victory.
The entire league stopped and started this season in an awkward allowance for the Olympic Games, which took the WNBA`s stars away in mid-flight. Personally, I almost forget the Storm were still playing this fall as their games were lost underneath the avalanche of NFL, college football and major-league baseball pennant runs.
But I remembered something Monday night, standing in KeyArena as a loud and loyal crowd of 7,261 stood and cheered as Storm players celebrated their playoff advancement. While the WNBA fights for space on a crowded sports plate among the general public, there is a strong group of supporters of the game and the women who play it.
These aren`t bandwagon fans. These aren`t critical, what-have-you-done-lately fans. These are folks who come early, cheer often and remain faithful.
In the moments after the Storm surged past the Lynx, everyone in KeyArena stayed on their feet, not wanting to leave. There was no scurrying for the exits, no beat-the-traffic rush. People stood watching in glee as players threw T-shirts into the crowd and danced on the sidelines.
As Bird`s backup, Tully Bevilaqua, gathered at center court for a postgame interview with radio announcer David Locke, about 90 percent of the fans stayed to listen and cheer.
This was a party nobody wanted to end. Not that the game was magnificently played. This wasn`t the best Storm effort. This wasn`t a spectacular display of basketball. But it was a gutsy, dig-deep sort of showing that fans appreciate.
And Bevilaqua, a tenacious 5-foot-7 whirlwind, was the perfect storm at the center of the team`s effort. You wonder how a player named Tully could survive on a team owned by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. But everybody, Schultz included, loves the little Australian who filled in for Bird with nine points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and zero turnovers at the point guard spot.
It seemed like the ultimate line in the boxscore for Bevilaqua. But it tells you something about the 32-year-old Aussie that she wanted to hear no part of it.
``Nope,`` she said, raising a hand. ``I don`t like to know that stuff. We won the game, that`s the most important thing. To me, it`s all about winning. If our score is more than theirs, that`s all I need.``
Imagine, a professional athlete who doesn`t care about individual statistics. Refreshing indeed.
But that`s the Storm.
Bevilaqua is so entrenched with her status as a role player on the bench that she went blank when Coach Sue Donovan started yelling her name after Bird went running past on her way to the locker room with bloody nose in hand.
``I was stunned,`` Bevilaqua acknowledged. ``Coach had to snap me out of it. It took a couple extra `Tully`s` to get my attention.``
By game`s end, the crowd was chanting ``Tull-ly, Tull-ly.`` A nice tribute to a hard-working pro who has never averaged more than 4.9 points a game in six WNBA seasons. But in this game, the complimentary players deserved the compliments as Bevilaqua and other bench mates rode to the rescue.
Which just goes to show that while Bird remains the face of the franchise, it takes more than one star to form a galaxy.
``I`m so proud of them,`` Bird said. ``Just to watch that second half was awesome. They were up against a team playing for their lives. To respond the way they did, good things are still to come if we can play like that.``
Good things, like a shot at the WNBA championship.
Good things, like a chance for the Storm to show they`re more than just a pretty face belonging to Sue Bird.
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