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What: “Player’s Journal”

Channel: Lifetime

When: Friday, 5 p.m.

The second season of “Player’s Journal,” a half-hour magazine show on WNBA athletes, begins with a feature on this season’s most high profile rookie--Sue Bird.

From her Long Island upbringing to her high school success in Queens to the brilliant college career at Connecticut capped by this year’s 39-0 national championship season, Bird is portrayed as cool, yet intense, with the gifts of a star yet a desire to fit in with the team.

Host and Academy Award winning actress Holly Hunter smartly avoids playing pseudo journalist, introducing the show and closing it with a quick tribute to Title IX, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in June. In between, Bird tells her own story interlaced with interviews from former coaches, teammates, parents and acquaintances. Considering Bird and teammates Asjha Jones, Tamika Williams and Swin Cash shared an apartment at Connecticut, the anecdotes are fleeting and unrevealing. The best examples given are of Bird’s impatience, of how “she’ll walk away from you” without realizing it, according to Jones.

And while Bird’s mother was given plenty of airtime, there were no remarks from her father, even though Bird lived with him in Queens when she went to Christ the King High after her parents divorced.

Otherwise the show is no harm, no foul.

Then again, Bird’s play has always been more compelling than her personality.