Big win in Bird's young career - Storm point guard savors first victory as a professional

PORTLAND — Curiously crooked, Sue Bird's nose sometimes seems the most photographed facial feature since Lauren Hutton's gapped teeth. An inquisitive tip, it's always pointed forward with her head up, just as every true point guard learns when they are given their first basketball.

As a little bird tagging along with big bird, sister Jen, in Syosset, N.Y., Sue rode dirt bikes, played tag in the park down the street, learned how to swing a Wiffle bat from her mom, Nancy, and got a tummy ache from too much saccharin.

Sue Bird has come a long way since then, and she took another step in her career with her first professional victory, a 57-47 WNBA victory over the Portland Fire.

When Bird was a budding track, basketball and soccer star in junior high, her parents divorced. At the time, Sue, 15, was a budding Mia Hamm — an emerging soccer pioneer at North Carolina. But Bird also was hearing about center Rebecca Lobo at Connecticut. The Huskies were 35-0 in 1995 and won the NCAA Championship. On the East Coast, it's written about in the Daily Herald (Storrs, Conn.); The Hartford Courant, The New York Times and USA Today.

A slicked back ponytailed Bird, playing AAU basketball against forward Swin Cash, forward Asjha Jones, and forward Tamika Williams, had to pick a sport as a sophomore in high school.

Confused and not feeling normal anymore, Bird needed a ballast during the difficult period of her parents' divorce. She needed friends who made her feel normal.

She picked basketball. She heard she'd have a better chance of going to college if she did. In the city, Queens, forward Chamique Holdsclaw was getting national recognition. She was a Parade All-American who signed a letter of intent to Tennessee. The Vols won national championships in 1996, '97, and '98. The first in 1996 was with point guard Michelle Marciniak, voted Most Outstanding Player by the media covering the tournament in Charlotte, N.C.

Admiring what they saw in their daughter, mom and dad bought an apartment in Queens to give their daughter a foundation. While Bird attended junior and senior high school at Christ the King High School, her parents divided the time they spent with her. Under their shared supervision, she was named Parade First-Team All-America; Most Valuable Player of the 1997-98 of the New York State Tournament; invited to the 1998 Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-America game and had her first newspaper article cut out.

Bird received national attention in USA Today and Street & Smith's magazine and signed a letter of intent with Connecticut.

While studying to become a broadcaster on Entertainment Sports Network Programming, Bird tore a ligament in her left knee eight games into her freshman season. While rehabilitating her knee, Bird bonded with her freshman-year roommate Swin Cash. She also developed a relationship with Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams — all roommates in a two-bedroom Hilltop Apartment in Storrs, Conn. That season the Huskies went undefeated, 39-0, and won the NCAA championship.

"She plays with her laces and ponytail," said Williams about Bird.

"She never uses her grown-up voice," said Jones about Cash.

"She's so nasty smooth, you can't stop her," said Bird about Jones.

"She messes with the skin around her nails," said Cash about Williams.

In April, the four were the first players selected in the top six of the lottery draft. Seattle, finishing in a four-way tie for the top pick in the draft, won the lottery in November, and selected Bird.

Yesterday, she won her first professional game on national TV. Bird scored 14 points, had five assists and four steals.

Today, one day after that first victory, is payday in the 16-team league.

Bird's first check is direct-deposit.

She already has a 2002 Lincoln Navigator, but that was given to her from her success in college.

"I'm saving up to buy my car," Bird said.

Jayda Evans can be reached at 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com.