Jackson gets co-pilot to fly in the Storm.

By Stephen Howell
May 31 2002

Lauren Jackson has another Wonder Girl with her in the eye of the Seattle Storm this Women's National Basketball Association season. The pressure is still on Australia's young champion to perform in her second year but her every move no longer is scrutinised. The spotlight is fully on this season's No. 1 draft pick, 175-centimetre point guard Sue Bird, who is 21 and six months Jackson's senior.

As the talk was of 195-centimetre Jackson, a foreigner, working at becoming the world's best player, it is now of Bird becoming the United States' starting point guard at the next Olympics, and possibly a back-up at this year's world titles . . . and she is yet to play in the pros.

As a double act, Jackson and Bird are expected to lift the Storm from the bottom of the ladder, where it has finished in its two seasons.

The American media has made much of the new, young inside-outside combo, and that Jackson is second-fiddle, off court at least, is certain to help her development in the season that started this week - Seattle plays New York today, perhaps without Jackson, who sprained an ankle at practice.

She carried the Storm in a successful debut year, averaging 15 points and seven rebounds and playing in the all-star game despite being homesick and copping the full force of opposition defence.

"There's nothing like this," Bird told The Seattle Times of the pressure on her and Jackson. "I mean, we've known each other for two weeks and we're expected to do all of these great things. I've never been in that type of situation."

Jackson added: "All we need is time. Look, we've got the talent and support from the coaching staff. We have enough so that if we can get some time playing together and practising we'll be able to reach the playoffs."

A playmaker-finisher relationship is not new for Jackson, having won titles with Kristen Veal, another potential champion, at the Australian Institute of Sport and Canberra Capitals.

Veal, also drafted in the first round last year, is in her second season with Phoenix Mercury but is on the Mercury's injured list, following a knee injury late last WNBA season. She was recruited by the Mercury to succeed Michele Timms, who retired at the end of last season.

Timms, back in Phoenix as a television and radio commentator, said yesterday that Veal had trimmed down and should be ready to play by the middle of next month. She, too, was thrown in the deep end last season when Timms was injured but this year is likely to be taken along more quietly. Timms said that having to fight Brazilian guard Adriana Moises Pinto for playing time would benefit Veal.

Jackson will benefit from playing with Bird, and from having her Canberra coach Carrie Graf in Seattle as an assistant coach after Graf moved on from that role in Phoenix.

Head coach Lin Dunn said of her new dynamic duo: "You can see them coming together. They have a mutual respect for each other's talents and are starting to realise, 'Hey, I can help you score and you can help me score'."

Tom Maher, the Australian coach who was not given time to be successful when Washington Mystics sacked him after finishing equal bottom with Seattle in the first season of a three-year deal, knows Jackson as well as any other watcher and puts her in the WNBA's top five.

He said from Sydney yesterday: "You can argue that Jackson is not yet as great as Leslie, Thompson, Swoopes and Griffith (all WNBA champions), but you can't argue that Jackson is ahead of what they were at her age."

During the recent Opals' tour of Japan, Jackson told Maher's successor as Australian coach, Jan Stirling, that this season in the WNBA would be good for Jackson and her country because it would improve her fitness.

Stirling agreed because Jackson needs to boost her fitness and, in doing so, she should take an already superb game to an amazing level for the world championships in China in September, a couple of weeks after the American league finishes.

There is more to the Australian WNBA presence than Jackson, although numbers are down on last season when about 20 put up their hands and 11 had successful campaigns. This is not because the Australians' reputation has declined; rather, it is because of priorities - the players' and the clubs'. The teams prefer those who will commit irrespective of national needs. This makes it difficult for some Australians and Europeans to go, especially those desperate to make world championship 12s.

And others have injury or personal problems, or simply don't want to be away from Australia for European and American seasons . . . and Europe usually pays more. Trisha Fallon, Michelle Brogan, Jae Kingi and Carla Boyd all would have had WNBA jobs if they had been available.

Others there are Penny Taylor (Cleveland Rockers), Sandy Brondello (Miami Sol), Kristi Harrower (Minnesota Lynx) and Annie Burgess (Washington Mystics), and Tully Bevilaqua has a spot with Portland Fire when she finishes her finals in Hungary.

Taylor had a strong debut year with Cleveland and is considered certain to get better in a caring group; Brondello is coming back after more than three months out with foot and leg injuries, but if she can recapture her shooting form will be a chance to be an all-star again; Harrower, the new Opals captain, is on the injured list as she recovers form and fitness after a knee reconstruction; and Burgess will be seeking to show the Mystics she is more than Maher's link to the players.