S: For right now, is the starting point guard position open? Is it going to be a training camp test to see if it’s going to be Sonja or Michelle or somebody else that may come along?

C: Well, I think my position right now at the point would be this – it is in our best interests as we grow this Seattle Storm franchise team to have a person playing the point position that can not only defend and distribute the basketball, but can score. I think we’ve learned a lesson that if we don’t have someone there night in and night out that’s capable of scoring either from the three point line or taking the ball to the basket via penetration, then it’s going to create offensive problems for the rest of our team. So our position will be whoever is playing the point for us next year must be able to score. Let me elaborate on this. I think you’ve seen the evolution of the women’s game. I looked at Charlotte and Los Angeles very closely in the playoffs and I think the one thing that they do have in common that makes them very unique in this league is both of their point guards are scoring point guards. Night in and night out if you help off and try to help off on any of their other players, Ukari Figgs and Dawn Staley will burn you. And I think that’s probably what hurt Teresa Weatherspoon for New York and their team and kept them from getting back to the championship game – the fact that night in and night out she cannot score. So I am rethinking where we are going to go with our point position and I’ve pretty much decided that philosophically our point guard must be able to score. Now, I’m not saying who it’s going to be. I’m just saying if you can score, boy, you got a chance of being our point guard. [laughs] But you also have to defend.

S: One of the other things that I noticed, maybe I was inaccurate about this, was after that Cleveland game here in Seattle where we scored something like 38 points against this monster zone defense they had going, it seemed like other teams started throwing zone defenses at the Storm more and more…

C: I don’t think you imagined that. I think that is accurate. I think the philosophy was Seattle can hurt you inside with their post players – Vodichkova, Simone Edwards, Jackson – so make their perimeter players beat you. Make Sonja Henning, Semeka Randall, Katy Steding, Jamie Redd step up and hit the outside shot. I don’t think there was any doubt about that. In particular, Sonja Henning and Semeka Randall because neither one of them are three point shooters. And I think that is going to be the challenge for Randall as she comes back this second season. She better come back with a three point shot.

S: Is that in her workout email?

C: [Laughs] Absolutely. Because once again, at this highest level what you do is exploit your opponent’s weaknesses. The fewer weaknesses you have, the better opportunity you have to win. That’s exactly why LA is the world champion – they have very few weaknesses. They are talented at every position. Every position can score inside and outside.

S: Most of our players have enjoyed great success, even championships, professionally, collegiately or on the Olympic level. How do you as a coach keep your players motivated and positive when they’re on a last place team?

C: Well, that’s a good question. I think first of all the character of the players themselves is key. If you look at the type of players that we’ve brought into this franchise, we’ve brought in some people with great character. People that understand the importance of staying positive. People that understand the importance of continuing to work hard. People that understand that building a franchise from the bottom is going to be extremely challenging. People that understand the importance of being patient and when you have leaders like Sonja Henning and Katy Steding, and even Michelle Marciniak now that she’s come on board because of the experiences that she’s had, say in Portland and then the American Basketball League, you know understanding how important it is that you stay positive. You have complete control over how you handle both winning and losing. I think those players set the tone that we will continue to work hard. We will get better. We will get committed. We will stay committed. We will work hard in the off season and guess what, we will get better. But there is a price you have to pay for success. When you evaluate the expansion teams versus the eastern conference champion and the western conference champion, what is the difference? Well, goodness gracious, they got 27 and 28 year old players that are six year veterans of the WNBA. You know, they are where we want to be. But we can’t just leapfrog over everybody. We’ve got to pay our dues and climb up there. And our players understand that. They are mature women that are very professional and they set the tone for how we are going to handle winning as well as losing.

S: One of the big issues seems to be that because so many of the players do play in the off season, they come back hurt or pretty tired. Now we’ve got a couple of players in Kamila and Lauren who left here hurt and going back to their other leagues injured.

C: And that’s really, really tough.

S: It seems like there is almost a negative feedback loop building up where players are getting less and less rest. What do you think is the solution for that?

C: Well, that’s a great question because with several of our players, their careers are basketball and the amount of money that they make in the WNBA is half their salary. So they supplement their salaries by playing overseas. I think that’s really tough for an expansion team because we are not quite as deep as the top teams. We saw how important it was that we not play Kamila as many minutes as we did the first year and we played her less minutes and she was more productive but she still ended up with a hurt knee by the end of the season. It’s a challenge that all of the teams have to deal with. The fatigue of some of their players that play overseas and the possible injury of them. I don’t know that anybody knows the solution to that other than depth. Try to have as many quality players as you can.

S: I read a newspaper report three or four weeks ago that had a stat that said upwards of about 17% of current WNBA players are suffering from some kind of injury this year and that women basketball players may be more susceptible to knee injuries than men. Because you have coached on so many levels, is this something that you think is accurate? What’s your experience with that?

C: Well, first of all I think it is true that women do have more knee injuries than male basketball players but I’m not exactly sure why. I don’t know if it’s because they’re physically how built, but that is true. We have had a rash of a lot of knee injuries in particular from our top players, over the last few years. I also think that the WNBA is a very physical league. It’s tough. It’s the highest level. You’ve got women out there that have been in the weight room now for 10-15 years. Everybody’s strong and it’s played at an enormously fast pace and there’s bodies flying and getting hit and everything. The potential for injury is there and that’s why it’s so important that you’re in elite physical condition. But I think those players that never get a break, that never take time off are probably a little more susceptible to injury.

S: One of the things that we’ve noticed about the uniforms is that a lot of the players roll up the shoulders or tape them up because the shoulders seem like they are too wide. It seems that whoever designed those things did not have them played in first or…

C: Well, the interesting thing about the uniforms that I’ve noticed which a lot of the women in the league is they act like they really just want the real severe cut almost like a tank top because the other material seems to some reason irritate them. I don’t know if they think it affects their shooting, but I’ve noticed a lot of women that tend to roll them under there up underneath their shoulders so it almost looks like the old tank top cut. So, I don’t know if that’s something we are going to see coming back in or not.

S: The next Olympics is two, three years away, but I’m sure that Team USA is looking ahead to defending the gold medal from Sydney. Do you see any of our American players on the Storm potentially being on the Team USA for the next Olympics? Does Semeka, Jamie, or any of our other players have a chance at being selected for the team?

C: Well, I think you’ll definitely you’ll see Lauren Jackson playing for Australia in the Olympic games, and I do think Semeka and Jamie are both young guards with potential for the future. I think as I’ve said all along, the players that are going to make the highest teams are the ones that are multi-dimensional and that can do everything. You know they have no weaknesses to their game. They have the three point, the penetration jumper, they can take it all the way to the basket, they can defend. And certainly these two, Jamie and Semeka, have enormous potential. It’s important now that they invest the time that is necessary to eliminate any weaknesses that they have in their game. I also think that the greatest challenge for us in the 2004 Olympics is the fact that it falls in the middle of the summer.

S: Right. Like last time.

C: Well no, it’s sooner than last year. I think that we finished the WNBA season and then they played the Olympics. This year it’s going to fall in the middle of the WNBA season. I don’t think anybody’s realized that. So we have a tremendous challenge as to how we are going to have a WNBA season and compete in the Olympics. And I think that that’s going to be the greatest question.

S: Wow. If the finals end up being USA versus Australia again – who did you root for last time and who will you root for next time?

C: I can tell you this – I’m always going to root for the United States of America because I was an assistant in the Barcelona Olympics and the World Championships in Malaysia. I’ve been involved in USA Basketball for 8-10 years of my life. And so I’m always going to cheer for the United States. I feel very strongly about that. But I’ll also be cheering for Lauren Jackson. I’ll be cheering for Lauren Jackson and the USA.

S: Last season right before the LA game, you spoke to a girl scout group in the Key Arena about growing up and some of the things that you have been through in your career. At this point, you’ve got to be somebody’s role model. Somebody out there is saying I want to be like Lin Dunn. How does that make you feel? And how do you deal with that kind of thing?

C: Wow. You know, to be honest with you, I take very seriously the fact that I am in fact a role model for young coaches. I don’t think there is any doubt. I have quite a few former players of mine that are now coaching that I hear from whenever they have a problem, whenever they have a crisis. They call me for support and as a resource. And I, just like I think our players take seriously their ability to be a role model for young players, I take very seriously my opportunity to be a role model for coaches and be a resource and be accessible and be available to give them support. Everything’s not always going to go right and there are going to be dark days as well as bright days and I think that one thing that I can do for young coaches because of the experiences that I’ve had is challenge them to always stay positive and challenge them to have a tremendous work ethic. And I think good things happen to good people. Good things happen to people that work hard and stay positive and then, you know and just fight through the dark days because there is always going to be another day.

S: It seems like womens’ sports is going nuts right now. We’ve got the WNBA, a professional soccer league and I just got email from another Storm fan about a professional women’s football team here in Seattle. What’s your perspective on the seemingly explosive interest level in women’s sports?

C: Well, I think we are seeing the fruits and the benefits of Title IX. And I know it was passed in 1972 and became law in 1976, but now we are seeing the generations of young women that have benefited from the passage of Title IX. We are seeing tremendous opportunities in so many sports. I think the fact that girls and women have the opportunity to play football is a sign that almost all of the areas of discrimination are gone. And what we are seeing is young girls at a very young age receive great coaching, access to great facilities, tremendous positive reinforcement and so there are really no reasons why they can’t be extremely successful and I think we are seeing the benefits of that now. And we will continue to, you know, in the next five, ten years and I think it’s even going to explode more.

S: The last question I’ve got is what do you want to tell the fans as we leave the second season and get into the third?

C: Well, first of all I am, I want to say how fortunate we are to have such great fans in Seattle. And how much I appreciate their patience and their loyalty as we build this franchise. You know, it’s tremendously challenging to build a team from scratch and it’s almost like being on a roller coaster ride. There are great highs and there are great lows. But I honestly believe that we are in a wonderful position as we take this next step in the third year to do even better things than we have done in the past. I mean I think our fans saw great improvement last year and were tremendously pleased that we were able to beat Phoenix and Utah and Houston, and have an opportunity there to challenge for a playoff berth. We want to be better next year. We know that if we score a few more points and get a few more rebounds, we’ll have the opportunity to win several more ball games. That’s our goal. To get better and in some of those close games that we had last year, get in those close games again next year and win those basketball games. And continue to be a great defensive team but know if we can score five or six more points and five or six more rebounds that we have the opportunity to win five or six more games. We know what we have to do to get better. And but I truly appreciate the loyalty and the patience of the fans. And I certainly want them to stick by us as we go into year three.

The other thing for the fans to understand is that we have new ownership and that our new owners are committed to building this Seattle Storm team. We are committed to connecting with the fans. We are committed to building a winning Seattle Storm team and we are also committed to winning a WNBA championship. And I think it’s very important that the fans understand that those are our goals.

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