September 24, 2002

Sue Bird playing for the USA Basketball.

It has certainly been a hectic season for Sue Bird who played College, WNBA and USA Basketball back to back. There is no doubt on how good she is on the court, but how much can a person do? She lived up to the expectation as the #1 draft pick by leading the Seattle Storm along with the #1 pick from 2001, Lauren Jackson to clinch their first playoff berth. Now she is a member of the USA Basketball Team who traveled to Australia for the Opal World Challenge and now competing at the World Championship in China.

According to some people who watched the games in Australia, Sue looked very nervous and serious most of the times. Lets say that she is just one heck of a competitor! She goes out, play hard and raise to perfection. No wonder she fit in so well with the undefeated UConn Team. Like everyone in the team, she knew how good she is and she showed her skills on the gym floor! Even when some rookies had tough time adjusting to the WNBA, she once again came out on top.

Infinity is the word when we talks about Sue Bird. We could go on and on forever talking about how good she is on and off court. She has a unique personality that definitely has attracted so many fans to follow her career or to place her as their role model. What can we ask for more as women's basketball fans? She's not just a pretty face playing basketball. She is a great person and a excellent basketball player! We all certainly looking forward to see more of her in the future.

We might recall that Sue was selected as a starter at the 2002 WNBA Allstar Game, and guess what? She passed the ball a lot!!! "I'm playing with the best right now, so I'm going to pass." she said. At times, I feel like she is just too humble. As a fan, I would like to see her being more aggressive and take more shots, but hey, she is just a great point guard who put her teammates over herself. She makes everyone elses around her look good, and she seems to be very comfortable with it.

How was her performance with the USA Basketball Team? As Van Chancellor, the USA Team Coach said that Sue was trying too hard out there. People were expecting her to make something happen off the bench, but her stats did not come out too appealing. I'm used to seeing her as a starter in every team she played in. It is a little strange to see her spending more time on the bench than ever before. One of the quotes from her saying that she learned a lot by watching and playing with the best. Her experience with the USA Team will certainly help her in the long run. We should not forget how good of an observer she has been. Sue tore her ACL as a freshman in College that forced her to spend almost the whole season on the bench. She treated the unfortunate injury as a golden opportunity for her to see the game from a different prospective. It was definitely one of the reasons why she has become one of the best point guards in the world.

2004 Summer Olympics will be the event to watch, as the mixture of young and older generation take the center stage in Athens. Players like Dawn Staley, Jennifer Gillom, and Nathalie Williams might or might not be there to participate. However, we have seen how well Tamika Catchings and Shannon Johnson played at their first international events, and of course the fact that Sue Bird might be given more responsibilities will definitely make things more exciting. And how about the upcoming WNBA players such as Diana Taurasi, Alana Beard and Nicole Powell? One of them might be part of the excitement! The last but not the least, we cannot forget so many other players who did not participate at the 2002 World Basketball Events. The depth of the USA Basketball has given their competitors some goose bumps, but it should be very interesting to see how things are going toward the Olympics.

Sue Bird is young and I'm sure that she will get better everyday as she gains more experience being a part of the USA Basketball. Good luck Sue!!!