Sam Returns to Get Ring
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Sheri Sam Photo GalleryFor the second time this season, the Seattle Storm will watch an opposing player receive their championship ring at KeyArena. But while
Sheri Sam, like Tully Bevilaqua, may be on the opposing sideline tomorrow, she remains eternally a member of the Storm's title team.
"It's going to be awesome," said Storm forward 
Lauren Jackson, a close friend of Sam's. "I can't wait to see her get it. It was kind of sad losing her and everything, so just being able to be there for her and have her back here is going to be awesome."
"It's exciting," said center 
Janell Burse, a teammate of Sam's in Minnesota and Seattle. "I loved Sheri. She was the best teammate ever, and I still think about her sometimes when little things happen. It will be great seeing her back in KeyArena."
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Betty Lennox, who teamed with Sam in Miami as well as last year, said. "I'm very excited for us to see her again. I miss Sheri, but business is business. Hopefully, she can go out tomorrow and have her ceremony and enjoy it because she deserves it. We enjoyed our ceremony, so she should enjoy hers. I think it's going to be really exciting for her, and I'm excited just to be able to give her that hug because we accomplished that together."
And Sam herself?
"I've been waiting for it," she said after her Charlotte Sting practiced Thursday afternoon at The Furtado Center. "It's going to be exciting. I'm finally going to see the bling-bling; all my teammates got it, they're bragging on it. It's going to be good to be in front of the fans one more time, just take it all in."
Sam spent just one season in Seattle after being acquired from the Lynx with Burse in an April trade, but it was a memorable one. Sam started 32 games (as well as all eight playoff games) and ranked fourth on the Storm in scoring (9.1 points per game) and rebounding (4.1 rebounds per game).
"I can't see this team getting this far without Sheri Sam, without a solid three with experience," said Storm Coach Anne Donovan on the eve of the playoffs.
An unrestricted free agent at season's end, however, Sam found a better opportunity in Charlotte. Thus far, the Storm has successfully replaced Sam's on-court contributions with free agent 
Iziane Castro Marques, but Sam's presence off the court - along with that of veterans Bevilaqua and Kamila Vodichkova - has been more challenging to replace.
"A lot of different players have stepped up and are being leaders this year," said Burse, "but just her presence and her being the veteran she was, it did help us tremendously and she did have a ton of leadership."
"I think they lost a lot, a lot of little things that may not show up in the stat sheet, whether it be leadership off the court or on the court," said Sam. "Any time you have two good players like Lauren and Sue and then someone like Betty, it's easy to score points and get those things done, but the little things are hard to replace, and I think that's what this team misses."
On the opposite coast, Sam could only watch when the Storm went through a slump earlier this month, losing six out of seven games.
"It's hard watching them when they go through the droughts, but I know that we worked hard last year to get the championship here," Sam said. "If I can't get it here in Charlotte, it belongs here."
The championship looked like a reasonable goal for the Sting at the start of the season, after Charlotte added veteran Tangela Smith and top overall pick Janel McCarville as well as Sam. Instead, the Sting started the season 1-9 and is still looking for a win away from the Charlotte Coliseum. Given Sam's expectations, this season has been frustrating for her.
"Going in before I signed with Charlotte, I felt like, with the moves that were made in the off-season, we had a good chance to contend," said Sam. "Things just didn't go the way we planned it, but we're just going to continue to play hard and keep working. We're going out and just having fun now and playing. Hopefully, things will be better next year."
That disappointment won't keep Sam from enjoying a few days in Seattle. Last night, she went to dinner with close friend Jackson, and they plan to go out again tonight with Jackson's parents, who are also in town.
"It's great, get to go back and visit my favorite restaurants, hang out with some of my friends, so it's always good to come back," Sam said.
"I'm glad we caught this one on or second game. We just got to hang out, go see good restaurants, some of my favorites, just hang out with LJ, catch up."
"It's been a bit of a godsend, really," she said.
Jackson describes the ankle as currently "pretty good."
"The swelling's gone down after a couple of days off," she added. "I'm not complaining."
