After all, here's a 24-year-old former SMS star who's had six surgeries in the past 22 months, four on a nagging, painful wrist and heel that reduced her from WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2001 to a part-time player last season, and no action at all this summer as she's just begun a long rehab process from her latest journey under the knife.

And for what? To play three months a year in a league that hardly is a blip on the national sports radar screen? That might not even be around in a couple of years? And where she'll make maybe $50,000 for her efforts, if that?

Could it really be worth it?

Most would quickly say "no." But then, they also must understand just exactly who we're talking about.

And all you need to know about why Stiles keeps working to get back to the WNBA can be revealed in two scenarios:

First, a couple of months back when she and boyfriend Brian Hargrove, on what otherwise was going to be just another dinner date out in the Kansas City area, instead turned it into a fierce, one-on-one pizza eating contest. Brian ate 14 pieces; Jackie, of course, choked down 15.

That's right. Fifteen pieces of mostly thick crust pizza crammed into a firm, 5-foot-8 body that surely must have had places where the pepperoni was showing through the skin after such an assault.

"This is how bored I've been," said a laughing Stiles, who'll be in town Monday and Tuesday to run a summer youth basketball camp at the Chesterfield Family Center. "You'd think I'd have better things to do than a pizza-eating contest. I'm just so competitive, I've got to find ways to compete with people.''

Exhibit B of self-admitted character flaw: A couple weeks after her May 14 surgery in Houston, Texas, the planned tell-all, end-all to cure the painful bursitis in her right heel and repair a damaged Achilles, she was cleared her for bike riding.

Stationary bike, the rest of the world might presume.

But Jackie? She hopped on her touring bike back in Claflin, Kan., and started what's become a several days, several hours a week regimen of riding 50 miles round-trip to her grandpa's house in Wilson. Never mind that she needed crutches to walk at the time, and still was wearing a three-pound protective boot (which came off earlier this week).

"I'd stop on the side of the road on one foot and rest every now and then," Stiles said, adding that farmers driving by would occasionally stop to ask if she was OK. "I'm always the type of person that can't ever ease into anything.''

Now you know why this WNBA is an obsession of sorts for Stiles.

• • •

It's not like she's one of those athletes trying to hang onto her sport, with no other hope for her life.

In fact, Stiles has had several job opportunities crop up of late.

She says Texas Pan-American, Wichita State, Michigan (with her former coach, Cheryl Burnett, now head of the Wolverines) have offered the NCAA's all-time scoring leader a chance to be a sort of intern/assistant coach, which would allow Stiles to not only share her knowledge, but work out with those teams on her planned road back to the WNBA next summer.

A few junior colleges even have called and asked her to become their head coach. So did a Colorado high school coming off a state championship season.

"I think they're crazy because I haven't proven myself as a coach, and I have no experience at that," Stiles said. "The one thing I do know is that if I ever get into coaching, I'll work like whatever to be successful. But right now, I just don't feel prepared."

Stiles also is looking into positions that would combine her degree from SMS in sports and fitness promotions with her intense love for working out, perhaps training others and finding some sort of competition (of course) for herself. The most likely route Stiles will take this fall for a side job this fall and winter will be to follow the path of her mentor and camp coordinator, former Lady Bears assistant Chuck Williams, and start giving individual lessons and instruction to young basketball players in the Springfield area, and in Stiles' case, beyond.

After all, Stiles does need a job. She is not getting paid by the Los Angeles Sparks, the WNBA power that chose her in the league's dispersal draft in April, as a result of her failure to pass a physical.

In a situation that has Stiles very frustrated, the Sparks — apparently believing she'll be back, and wanting to lock her up — voided her contract, but chose to retain her rights instead of releasing her. The move eliminated the chance for another WNBA team to pick up her up, place her on the injured list and most importantly, pay her.

"It's just been the worst situation I could possibly be in," Stiles says. "But it's a business, and I guess I have to understand that."

• • •

Fortunately, Stiles won't be on a street corner anytime soon. She's been smart with her money from the league and her endorsement deals, most of which came in two- and three-year contracts. She admits, though, her frequent trips to the surgeon have her thinking more about her career after basketball.

For now, Stiles has a job — to work herself back into form for the 2004 WNBA season. Her doctors maintain she's on a nine-month journey to full recovery, and is still a couple of months away from even being able to jump off her repaired foot.

Baby steps is the way she's approaching it, starting with throwing away the crutches and that protective boot in the past two weeks.

"I'll be patient because I've invested so much," Stiles said. "I still have the drive, if my body cooperates. I still have the passion, and as long as I do, I'll give as much effort as I can to make it back.''

And the adversity hasn't been a total bummer. Stiles just might have discovered a new career in all this.

"I'm seriously thinking about getting into bike racing," she says. "I've been biking so much, and Lance Armstrong is my hero."

Then again, Stiles could open a chain of all-you-can-eat pizza parlors, too. Beat the owner and your meal is free, or something like that.

Which, knowing the competitive side of Stiles, the customers had better be reaching for their wallet.