SEATTLE -- If you asked Seattle's Tanisha Wright about how her first few years in the WNBA went, she might jokingly answer, in "Napoleon Dynamite"-style, "The worst seasons of my life, what do you think?!"
The story of the "quesadillah"-eating, liger-drawing, tater tot-hoarding, dancing king is one of Wright's favorite movies. But, really, Wright's beginning in the WNBA wasn't bad at all. Just frustrating at times. The one way she actually might have related to Napoleon was his lament about lack of "skills."
He longed for things like nunchaku skills, bowhunting skills, computer-hacking skills. Wright just wanted point-guard skills. She had always played the 2 guard, and having to be at the 1 was not the easiest fit for her. But the Storm needed her to help back up Sue Bird at point guard.
"You know you have to work your way up in the league," Wright said of being drafted by the Storm out of Penn State in 2005. "I was confident I could contribute. But the part that got to me was I wasn't able to play a position I was completely, 100 percent comfortable with, and then my career seemed up and down, roller coaster.
"Then when [coach Brian Agler] came, he gave me some security to play my natural position and be confident in that. And then from there, I could help out at point guard."
As Seattle enters the WNBA finals against Atlanta (Game 1 is on ABC at 3 p.m. ET Sunday), it's important to recognize how much Wright -- who averaged 9.2 points, 4.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds this season -- has brought to the stability of the Storm. That has been one of the team's greatest strengths, and Wright -- in her sixth WNBA season and second as a full-time starter -- had solidified everything about her game.
"It's been amazing to watch her development," Bird said. "We joke about it now, but early on it was hard for her. She was forced to do it. People sometimes underestimate the point-guard position, what it takes to run it.
"If you're someone who by nature wants to score, and you're good at that, having to play point kind of takes you out of that mode. And it's hard to find the balance between running the team and doing what you're good at."
Bird, of course, was practically a pre-natal point guard, so that balance was something she'd been used to monitoring all her life. For Wright, it was a different process: getting really secure at the pro level with what she already knew, then using that confidence to help with something that pushed her out of her comfort zone.
Admittedly, Bird has been on the floor a great majority of her nine seasons in Seattle; she has averaged more than 33 minutes per game in her WNBA career. But when she's not, or when it works for Seattle to have another ball handler on some possessions, Wright is very able to fill the role.
"I've been here for six seasons now, and Sue and I have been playing together for that long," Wright said. "I didn't play as much my first, second and third years, but I still got good minutes in practice, and we were able to develop that relationship.
"We're comfortable with one another, we have a feeling for each other's game and what we do well. And you can see that when we're playing together. We have a good connection."
Wright and Bird are also both East Coast natives who've adjusted to the difference of living in the Pacific Northwest. Wright was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., then moved to western Pennsylvania around age 5 and grew up there.
"I'm an East Coast girl, and I love being there and everything about it," Wright said. "The West feels slower, more laid-back and relaxed. But it's OK. Here, I take in the scenery more, and it's a good balance for me."
One thing Wright really didn't have to change much from college to the pro game was the way she played defense, with a physicality and aggressiveness that translated well to the WNBA.
"When I interviewed for this job in Seattle," Agler said, "we talked about what we needed to change in the roster to get the Storm back where they were in 2004. I felt you had to put the right players around Sue and Lauren [Jackson] to let them do what they do best.
"They are extremely skilled players, and they have great toughness to them. But they are not what you would consider real physical-type players. Tanisha was on the roster, and she was a person I felt like could be a mainstay on this team."
Both Wright and Camille Little, who came to Seattle in 2008 via trade from Atlanta in Agler's first year as Storm coach, became starters that season and have stayed in place since.
"Tanisha is respected around the league with her defensive abilities," Agler said, referring to Wright making the all-defensive first team the past two years. "But she's also improved her offensive abilities -- from being a better 3-point shooter to being a creator with the basketball.
"It's just really been a great complement for Sue, and they have a great chemistry together."
Agler won two ABL championships with the Columbus Quest with Katie Smith as a star, and sees some comparisons between her and Wright: both strong, 5-foot-11 guards who can defend bigger players.
"Their approach to defense and their competitiveness to take on challenges on the defensive end are similar," Agler said. "I guess the best way to put it is they are really versatile defensively.
"Katie's offensive skills are hard to match, but Tanisha's offensive abilities -- just like Camille's -- have steadily improved over the last couple of years."
Now, there's no situation that Wright really couldn't handle in the Seattle backcourt. She confidently can take on just about anything.
As Napoleon Dynamite would say, "You wanna play me?"
Mechelle Voepel, a regular contributor to ESPN.com, can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com. Read her blog at voepel.wordpress.com.