The accidental star, Bird is WNBA's 'It' girl

Sue Bird has "It."

The same way Michael Jordan and Arnold Palmer had "It."

The same way Chris Evert had "It" and Serena Williams has "It."

"It" can't be explained. "It" can't be programmed. "It" isn't something an image-maker creates.

"It" practically is indescribable. "It" goes beyond stardom. "It" isn't measured in numbers.

"Cheryl Miller from my day, she had star power," Storm coach Anne Donovan said this week. "She had the kind of personality where she loved the spotlight, and if the spotlight moved, she ran into it. But Sue is not that way.

"She's trying to go quietly about her business, and the spotlight keeps following her. She's a great kid, inside and out. She is a super, tremendous basketball player with incredible skills. But, as a person, that's who you'd want your daughter to grow up to be. So the star power is there for a good reason."

Bird is the WNBA's accidental superstar. She draws attention to herself just by being herself.

On the day she first met her agent, Cincinnati-based Jimmy Gould, she called and apologized in advance because she said she wouldn't be dressed appropriately. A bottle of shampoo had opened in her suitcase and ruined her clothes.

"She walked in, in jeans," Gould said by telephone yesterday, "and it was love at first sight."

For Sue Bird, "It" is something that is as natural as her smile and as bankable as her crossover dribble.

She is one of those rare athletes who is transcendent. She is a star beyond her game.

She has endorsement deals with Nike, American Express and Minute Maid, and Gould said he is talking with other sponsors, including several clothing lines and Proctor & Gamble.

"A lot of people in sports go after 'It,' " Donovan said. "And if they gain 'It,' they gain 'It' through the way they perform. Sue gains 'It' for more than just how she performs."

Bird is believable.

"She is what you see," Gould said. "She's the incredible girl next door: very natural, very approachable. She has a great sense of who she is. And she's so unaffected by everything."

Bird is the face of the Seattle Storm. The team's billboard off Mercer Street shows her picture and reads, "#10 Sue Bird. Favorite meal, opposing defenses."

And, judging by the commercials running during these NBA playoffs, she is one of the most marketable players in her league. There is Los Angeles center Lisa Leslie, and there is Sue Bird. They are becoming, for their league, what Magic Johnson and another player named Bird were for their league.

She is self-assured and, at the same time, a little shy. She smiles easily, but only reluctantly talks about herself. During a short interview this week, she shyly rolled and unrolled the outer layer of her T-shirt over her elbows.

Most of all, though, she is a player. She is the next step in the evolution of her game. She takes players off the dribble like Allen Iverson. She pulls up on the run and knocks down jumpers like Steve Nash.

And, not so coincidentally, as her game rises, so does her celebrity.

Bird walked the red carpet at last year's ESPY's with Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. She has been offered small roles in several movies, but she hasn't accepted them because they were being shot in the summer and because, she said, "Basketball, right now, for me, is enough. We'll see about later. You never know."

"I know she doesn't want to hear this, but I call her the New Age Perfect 10," Gould said. "I'm not talking about her being like Bo Derek. You know, fix up her hair and put on a bathing suit and call her a 10. It's not based on physicality. But there's an aura around her. She has smarts, talent, clarity, compassion and looks."

Bird only is 22 and just beginning to weave the tapestry of her experience. But already, in her second year in the league, she is shooting across her game, bright as a meteor on a cloudless night.

"A year ago in April, I was in college, living the life, so to speak, not having any worries," Bird said. "But I love all of this. I feel like Seattle is my second home now. And, as far as the marketing stuff goes, I just think it comes with the territory. I don't try to get caught up in it. And I try to have as much fun with it as I can. But basketball is my career.

"When I started playing basketball, I played because my parents would let me out of the house. I played because my older sister did it. It wasn't something I thought I'd have a career in. I played a lot of sports, and basketball was always the one for me. It was fun. And I like the competitiveness, the camaraderie, the travel, the whole culture."

Peel away the posters and the billboards, take away the bobblehead dolls and the sneaker deals, and you find her essence.

"It," for her, still begins on the floor. That's where the warmth leaves and she becomes cold-blooded.

Roll up the red carpet and put the ball in her hands on a three-on-two break. Cut the videotape and pass her the ball on the wing, with the clock running down and score tied. That's when you learn what "It" is.

And that's where we see, most clearly, that Sue Bird has "It."

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com