Odds and ends from all sides of the hoopin' spectrum

* Happy belated birthday to Dawn Staley, who turned 39 yesterday.

* Lauren Jackson apparently does have a heart after all:

"I love the Storm - I love playing there," Jackson said late Monday night in her only interview between signing her new contract and leaving for a vacation with her parents. "For different reasons, the opportunity came up to play somewhere else. It came down basically to me loving it in Seattle. I've said for a long time it's my home there in America. I couldn't bear to leave. I just wanted to come home and make the decision and be with my parents and my friends here and do it that way. It was easier for me."

Jackson also referred to potentially leaving the Storm as probably "The biggest mistake that I'd ever made," and reiterated what a special place Seattle has become for her.

"It came down basically to me loving it in Seattle. I've said for a long time it's my home there in America. I couldn't bear to leave."
Aaron Last/Storm Photos

"I'm really fortunate and I'm glad that I had this time to think about it and really put what I love about Seattle in perspective and how I would feel if I left," she said. "I think that I would have lost a huge part of me if I had gone from Seattle, so I'm just glad that I got this opportunity to have this time and realize how important it is."

Timing played a factor in Jackson's thought process. Entering the Storm's 10th Anniversary season, she thought back on the start of her own career, and her development as a player and a person that has in many ways been intertwined with the Storm's growth as a franchise.

"There's definitely a lot of nostalgia when I think about it, like when I first came over to Seattle and I was so scared and I just didn't know what to expect being away from home," Jackson recalled. "Looking back on it, I don't know how I've lasted this long overseas, but I guess that's just a part of growing up and loving what you do. Seattle definitely has been my home, and the 10th season coming up obviously was something that made me want to be there even more, because I feel like I've been part of that program and helped it grow for a long time."

Link: http://www.wnba.com/storm/news/jackson090505.html

* How is Michael Cooper going to coach both USC and the Sparks if the latter go deep into the playoffs, which will take them into October?

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/05/michael-cooper-maintains-sparks-is-no-1-priority-before-coaching-usc-womens-hoops-college-inexperien.html

* Kellie Harper will have a "tough task" heading NC State:

http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2009/may/03/harper-settles-in-for-a-tough-task/

But how many schools are like Western Carolina, who had a "good luck" party for their outgoing coach on April 27?

Pretty classy, WC.