AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -Cheryl Ford has never craved the spotlight.
This season, the Detroit Shock All-Star isn't going to be able to avoid it.
With Swin Cash gone to Seattle, Ford has become the public face of the WNBA's top team, a role she only accepts reluctantly.
``I don't want to be the face of the franchise - I just want to play basketball,'' Ford said Wednesday at the Shock's media day. ``Bill (Laimbeer) asked me to do it, so I'll take one for the team, but I don't like it.''
Ford would much rather spend her time rehabbing the knee injury that hindered her for most of last season. She had microfracture surgery on Sept. 27 and was only cleared for full-scale practicing on Wednesday, 10 days before Detroit opens the regular season by hosting the Houston Comets.
``I've never been hurt before, so this has really been tough,'' she said. ``They told me that it would probably take six weeks to heal after the surgery, but it's been more like seven months. It all depends on how well the cartilage grows, and mine has been slow.''
Ford played through the injury in last year's WNBA finals, but said she was at about 40 percent as Detroit lost in five games to Phoenix. The Shock were going for their third title in five years.
``If I had been healthy, we would have won without a doubt,'' she said. ``It just didn't happen, and there must have been a reason for that.''
When healthy, Ford is the league's best rebounder and a tough defender, much like Laimbeer and assistant coach Rick Mahorn were during their playing days.
``I think Cheryl is going to be fine. She's running without pain, so she just has to get past the mental part of getting hit again,'' Laimbeer said. ``That's always the toughest part for a player coming back from an injury.''
Laimbeer is starting his sixth full season as coach, and has had the same goal in every one.
``We want to win the East and get to the finals,'' he said. ``That's our goal every year, and we've done it twice in a row and three of the last five. We're certainly capable of doing it again.''
Cash was traded to the Storm after feuding with Laimbeer over playing time, but he doesn't think her absence will have a noticeable impact.
``We haven't spent much time thinking about it,'' he said. ``I'm going to do the same thing that I always do, which is play the people that are going to compete. If I had made an exception to that for her, it would have been a distraction, but I didn't, so nothing has changed.''
Plenette Pierson ended up with most of Cash's crunch-time minutes, and would be the obvious choice to replace her in the starting lineup, but Laimbeer might want to keep her as his first option off the bench. That would mean starting LaToya Thomas, acquired in an offseason trade with Atlanta, or Sheri Sam, whom the team signed as a free agent on Wednesday.
Pierson will be happy either way.
``I know that I can have a starter's impact coming off the bench, and I'm fine with that,'' she said. ``I just want us to win.''
Laimbeer also will have three rookies on the roster, and expects to get significant minutes from Tennessee guard Alexis Hornbuckle and West Virginia center Yinka Sanni.
Hornbuckle acknowledged Wednesday that she's been overwhelmed by the last six weeks, which has seen her go from hero of Tennessee's national championship to WNBA rookie.
``There wasn't exactly a lot of time to soak things in - I just had to put the national title aside and go right back to work,'' said Hornbuckle, who hit the game-winning shot that put the Lady Volunteers into the national title game. ``This is like being a freshman all over again.''
