Orlando guard Shannon "Pee-Wee'' Johnson actually asked the first question of this interview.

	Tamecka Dixon is one of five players appearing in their first major competition with the U.S. senior team.

"You sure you want to talk to me?'' she said.

It was the day after the WNBA Finals had ended in Los Angeles, and the U.S. national team was practicing south of L.A. on the campus of UC-Irvine. Well, not all of the team. The Sparks' Lisa Leslie, DeLisha Milton and Tamecka Dixon and New York's Tari Phillips -- a replacement on the U.S. team for injured Houston star Tina Thompson -- weren't there yet. They had a day of rest after the finals.

But the other players were on hand, including Johnson, Sue Bird and Tamika Catchings. Those three, plus Dixon and Phillips, will play in their first major competition with the U.S. senior team at the World Championships in China.

The event begins Saturday and runs through Sept. 25, showcasing 29 WNBA players, including all 12 on the U.S. team. The games will be carried live on NBA TV.

It's an interesting mix of American players, "old'' and "new,'' even without Thompson and Chamique Holdsclaw, who wanted to take personal time off this fall after dealing with her grandmother's death during the season.

Johnson belongs here, of course, even if she sometimes looks around and is amazed or greets a reporter with surprise. Obviously, playing for South Carolina in the mid-1990s, she really didn't get a lot of national attention despite big numbers. Her profile has risen in her pro career, first with two-time ABL champion Columbus and now with WNBA's Miracle.

Johnson and Dixon both previously had played some games with the senior team, but not in this level of competition.

Johnson was an alternate for 1998 world team and the 2000 Olympic team. She didn't get discouraged but instead looked at it like she was just a step away from making it. And, indeed, she was.

"I've been playing in USA Basketball since 1993,'' Johnson said. "It's a patience thing. When you wait around for your turn, good things will happen.

	U.S. senior team newcomer Tamika Catchings was the '02 WNBA Rookie of the Year.

"I'm one of the players who are so geeked about being here and playing with the top players.''

Actually, she isn't just playing with the top players, she is a top player. Johnson averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 assists and 4.2 rebounds for Orlando this past season. To many opponents, trying to guard Johnson is like guarding a phantom: there one split second, gone the next. And ...

(OK, I'll admit it. I somehow didn't know "geek'' had been turned into the adjective "geeked'' -- i.e., in a geeky state of excitement -- until Johnson used that term. Curious what the dictionary said of "geek'' -- besides the grotesque chicken-killing, freak-show origin, that is -- I was distracted by the word "gavotte:'' a dance like the minuet, but livelier. And finally realized, after 30 years of hearing the song, that's what Carly Simon was saying in "You're So Vain,'' -- "You had one eye in the mirror as, you watched yourself gavotte.'')

Anyway, it's kind of neat to see players "geeked'' about playing for the national team. The elite U.S. men's basketball team that just went medal-less at its World Championships in Indianapolis seems to have lost much of that reverence. Maybe because with the attention, crowds and money NBA players are used to, events such as the World Championships just don't mean that much.

They still do on the women's side, though. Johnson talked about how cool it was to play alongside one of her idols, two-time Olympian Dawn Staley of Charlotte.

Indiana's Catchings, always an intense and committed player, has become all the more zoned in not only at games but practices. She says her time away from playing after her January 2001 ACL injury fanned an already blazing fire of competitiveness, which her WNBA rookie-of-the-year season showed.

Any chance to play matters to Catchings; to do so for the United States in an international competition is mammoth. (And, yes, she does get a kick out of the fact that U.S. teammate Jennifer Gillom of Phoenix is almost old enough to be her mother.)

Seattle's Bird, the consummate leader, is understandably struggling a little to not always be so deferential to her older U.S. teammates. She wants to show proper respect. But she will grow comfortable with the realization that she, like Catchings, is one of the long-term cornerstones for the Americans.

Dixon said winning two WNBA titles has been fantastic, but playing for her country will be even better. And Phillips, who is getting her shot at Worlds at age 33 -- a lot later than the other four "newbies'' -- says she's grateful to finally have the chance.

Fair to say they're all geeked.

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.