Can Betty Lennox give a repeat performance?

There aren't many memories.

The feeling of champagne squishing between her toes from a soaked green carpet is vague. Shivering in an oversized green championship shirt is just a clip on a newsreel. And leading the Storm to a championship, averaging 22.3 points in the WNBA Finals, is represented only in the delicate MVP trophy Betty Lennox was awarded after the final game back in October.

About five days later, she was in Italy, where chants of "Bet-ty! Bet-ty!" switched to a garbled "Ba-tee-na! Ba-tee-na!" Only later did she realize that was her.

When Lennox returned from Italy for the start of training camp, she said she realized she missed out on the championship experience by leaving so quickly to play overseas.

"We just have to do it all over again so I can enjoy it this time," she said. "What I heard in the gym when they called my name [during Saturday's exhibition at KeyArena] means more than anything. Just hearing the kids and just the screaming. ...

"I didn't have an opportunity to enjoy myself when we won, but after that [exhibition] game, it doesn't make me feel like I lost anything. Stuff like that kind of warms my heart because they know that I'm out there to entertain them and do what I can."

Despite her numbers dropping after a midseason broken nose, Lennox played herself into the Storm's third starring role last season.

She was one of several new faces on the 2004 roster, and many expected trade pickup Sheri Sam to be the glittering third name on the Seattle franchise with headliners Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird.

But Sam averaged a career-low 9.1 points on 41 percent shooting, dropping to 4.0 points on 26 percent shooting in the Finals. And everyone remembers her missed defensive coverage on the shot that could have given the title to Connecticut, a shot that Sun forward Nykesha Sales happened to clank off the side of the backboard.

"People think that led to my not being in Seattle," Sam said of her coverage of Sales. Sam departed Seattle as a free agent this offseason. "That play has followed me around like a black spot."

In reality, money and Lennox's postseason performance shaped this year's roster. Sam found a high bidder in Charlotte during the offseason, and Anne Donovan, Storm coach and director of player personnel, didn't want to stretch her $673,000 salary cap to the limit. Jackson and Bird were already commanding the league maximum ($89,000 each).

"Betty had a great season for us. She's a special player that we were not going to let go," said Donovan, who also couldn't match the free-agent salaries of backup guard Tully Bevilaqua and starting center Kamila Vodichkova.

Coaches say teams must have three All-Star caliber players to win a championship. The Storm still does, even after free agency pilfered its roster.

Bird is one of the WNBA's top point guards, in line to replace Olympian Dawn Staley as a starter at the 2008 Olympic Games. Jackson, the Australian who twice has led the league in scoring (20.5 last season), is regarded as the best international talent. And Lennox, the 2000 rookie of the year from Louisiana Tech, is a creative scorer with rebounding skills that surpass her 5-foot-8 stature.

But analysts believe the days of repeating are gone. Houston did form a dynasty in the beginning, winning the first four WNBA championships. But Detroit defeated Los Angeles as the Sparks tried to win a third title in 2003, and the Shock made a first-round exit last season as it tried to repeat.

This season, Connecticut or Phoenix could easily take the glory away from Seattle.

"Dynasties are just in the minds of sportswriters," Houston coach Van Chancellor said. "Coaching, you're trying to win the next game. You're not trying to win four in a row. But I don't know where it's all going. Time will tell."

The Storm will need Lennox simply to survive the summer. Seattle plays 10 road games before the July 9 All-Star break, a scheduling decision made by the league so the Storm wouldn't suffer in terms of ticket sales during its slowest month, June.

With the Storm still awaiting the arrival of Australian center Suzy Batkovic, expected in June, and getting accustomed to a host of new players, Lennox and her outside shot are needed to draw defenders' attention away from pressuring Bird when she has the ball and double-teaming Jackson inside — especially in hostile road arenas.

Lennox exploded on the scene on the road last season, hitting a game-winning shot on June 5 to help Seattle defeat Sacramento at Arco Arena for the first time in the franchise's five-year history. But Seattle remains one of the league's poorer road teams with an all-time record of 26-56. With a short 34-game schedule, there's little time to rebound from a rocky start.

"It's an early road test for a team that's young and still gonna be trying to figure things out," Donovan said. "We've got to mature and hit the road with the mind-set that we've got to compete and hold our own. It's a rough month. But I'm hopeful by the time June gets here that we're mature enough to handle that kind of swing and understand the importance of it."

Los Angeles (25-9) and Seattle (20-14) were the WNBA's only teams to reach 20 wins last season. Both played in a Western Conference with a great division between the haves and the have-nots. This summer, coaches are expecting the West to mirror the East, where in 2004 three games separated last place from first.

All of the early challenges put a smile on Lennox's face. She's the first to say she thrives in this situation.

"I can't wait for the season to start," said Lennox, starting her sixth year in the league. "Just knowing we're stepping out on the court being the champions, it just makes it that much more exciting. A lot more difficult, everybody is going to be after us. Everybody is going to be up to play us because we're the champions."