In Case You Missed It ...

The busy week leading up to Opening Night can make it hard to keep up with everything, so I wanted to highlight some important content here at stormbasketball.com and elsewhere.

If anything was vulnerable to getting overshadowed, I think it was Thursday's event where the Storm reopened the First A.M.E. Child and Family Center in Seattle with a Reading and Learning Center renovated thanks to the Storm winning the 2008 Fast Break to Reading Program presented by Pitney Bowes. Our staff photographer Aaron Last was there and put together a photo slideshow/video looking at both the work done by Storm employees over the weekend and the culmination on Thursday, and it is very good.

Here are a couple more photos from the event, also by Last:


The big ribbon cutting, with Alfie Charles from Pitney Bowes and Carey Anderson from First A.M.E. doing the honors.


Storm players Janell Burse and Tanisha Wright read to children in their new space with new books.

WNBA legend Jennifer Azzi was on hand to emcee the event and represent WNBA Cares. She wrote about the experience on her blog.

In terms of basketball, our preview coverage included features on how Swin Cash is feeling better on and off the court after back surgery, how Shannon Johnson's addition has completed a versatile Storm backcourt and the team's impressive depth in the post with Janell Burse and Lauren Jackson reuniting as likely starters. It culminated with yesterday's general season preview highlighting how the Storm hopes to get back to the level at which the team played during a dominant six-game winning streak last July before Jackson's departure and subsequent injury.

I was surprised to check out the Seattle Times' preview yesterday and see Jayda Evans chose a similar angle for her centerpiece story. I intentionally don't read other stories until after I've written mine so I'm not influenced subconsciously, and I hadn't guessed we'd both focus on the July 12 win over Los Angeles that was a highpoint of the Storm's season. Of course, from there the articles diverge quite a bit, so there's plenty to be gained from both.

In addition to that, Evans has bio capsules on each player and checks in with members of the inaugural 2000 Storm team to see what they are up to now. Steve Kelley completed the coverage with his column on why Lauren Jackson decided to return to Seattle, which tugs at the heartstrings.