J-Speaks: Storm's Bird New Assist Leader

From her stellar high school career for Christ the King in Queens, NY; to the University of Connecticut; with the Seattle Storm of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), to her stellar career overseas, Sue Bird has been a winner wherever she has played. She has been a champion many times over; a perennial WNBA All-Star and above all, well respected by her teammates, peers, and opponents. On Friday night, one of the best floor generals to ever grace the collegiate and professional hardwood added another accomplishment to her resume.

In the Storm’s (15-19) 110-106 overtime setback at the Washington Mystics (18-16), Bird in the opening quarter surpassed former WNBA point guard Ticha Penicheiro of the then Sacramento Monarchs to become the all-time assists leader in the history of the WNBA.

Bird tied the record at the 4:06 mark of the opening stanza with a pass to Carolyn Swords that she scored on a layup over two Mystics defenders.

She would break the tie with assists number 2,600 on a pass again to Swords off a pick-and-roll that she scored on uncontested at the 3:35 mark of the first period. It was the third of a season-high 13 assists on the night for Bird, one shy of her career-high. She also scored 19 points on the evening in the nation’s capital.

Bird now has 2,610 assists for her career as Penicheiro is now in second place with 2,599. Minnesota Lynx lead guard Lindsay Whalen with 2,249. In fourth is former San Antonio Stars floor general and current assistant coach for the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs Becky Hammon with 1,708. In fifth is fellow UConn Lady Huskie and champion guard for the Phoenix Mercury Diana Taurasi with 1,656.

“Congratulations to Sue Bird for setting the WNBA career assists record. Passing the great Ticha Penicheiro is a remarkable accomplishment that reflects Sue’s selfless approach to the game and provides yet another reminder of her sustained excellence over 15 seasons,” WNBA President Lisa Borders said in a statement on Friday night.

Penicheiro echoed those same thoughts of Bird by stating, “Records are made to be broken and if somebody is going to take your ‘crown,’ you want it to be somebody like you. You do it with class, charisma, passion, humility, efficiency, professionalism, and creativity… always leading your team and your teammates.”

For the past few weeks fans and the media have been counting down to when Bird was going to break the record, but that was never on the mind of the Storm’s lead guard.

“Truthfully, I’m not just saying this, it’s not something I paid attention to,” she said last Tuesday, sitting just 12 assists shy then of breaking Penicheiro’s all-time mark.

The mark had not even been on the radar until the start of the 2017 WNBA campaign when a reporter mentioned to Bird that if she averaged a certain number of assists that she would be on track to become the new all-time assists leader.

Bird’s response was, “It seemed like a high number, so I was just like ‘Oh yeah, whatever.’ I didn’t really think twice about it,” Bird said. “Then probably about a month ago it came up again where it was like now you’re only this many away.”

That is not to say that Bird was not dismissive at what she achieved at the Capitol One Arena on Friday night, but individual accomplishments are not what drives her or is a part of her makeup. Bird for much of her career was a player that strived to find the proper balance between scoring and putting her teammates in position to score to help her team win every night the Storm took the court.

That selflessness as was described by WNBA President Borders earlier is why the likes of former teammates Lauren Jackson, Camille Little, Swin Cash, Janell Burse and Betty Lennox, and current teammates Crystal Langhorne; last season’s Rookie of the Year Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd, Alysha Clark, and Tanisha Wright had many opportunities to make plays offensively thanks to Bird’s ability to find them.

“Honestly, to be able to just play with Sue it was a dream of mine,” Stewart said. “She’s the best point guard in the game, and she deserves to be the all-time leader in assists. She sees the floor unlike anyone else, and I’m grateful to be here playing with her, and just learning from her.”

“You know, Bird can see anything from any different angle and that’s is Sue Bird. She sees the play before the play,” Minnesota Lynx’s All-Star and teammate on that 2016 Gold Medal winning women’s team Seimone Augustus said.  

To put Bird’s accomplishment into context, 624 of her 2,610 career assists went to Jackson, and that is a major reason the Storm won titles in 2004 and 2010.

Of the top 30 scorers in WNBA history, only Bird and Whalen have more than 2,000 assists and just those two along with Taurasi, Hammon and Cappie Pondexter of the Chicago Sky have more than 1,500 assists.

Bird is also ninth all-time leading scorer in league history and is just a point shy of passing Hammon for eighth place.

Penicheiro, who Bird as mentioned just passed finished her 15-year career, with 12 of those with the Monarchs finished with as many assists, 2,599 as points scored in her career with 2,747.

“Playing against her was always tough,” Bird said of her matchups with Penicheiro early in her career. “This is what makes Ticha so special; you knew what Ticha did, you knew what she did well, you knew what she was trying to do and you still couldn’t really stop it. You knew that when she penetrated she was always looking for her teammates and even knowing that you still couldn’t stop her from doing it.”

One player on the receiving end of a number of those assists during their time as Olympic teammates was Taurasi, who called Bird, “the best point guard to ever play in the WNBA.”

“I’m so proud of her. I know how much time she’s put into it, and I’ve been lucky to share the court with her in a lot of ways, and I’ve taken so much away from the way she approaches basketball, that there’s no one like Sue. She’s one of a kind.”

The greatest thing that a legend of the game can do is inspire others to reach her level of excellence in terms of their play on the court. That is what Bird has done for the likes of Courtney Vandersloot of the Sky, Layshia Calerndon of the Atlanta Dream, and Skylar Diggins-Smith of the Dallas Wings.

“I think truthfully what’s even more impressive is, yes I’m having a career year in assists, and then there are still two players who are having better years in assist-wise,” Bird, who is averaging a career-high of 6.6 assists per contest in this her 15^th season. “It’s the year of the assist, so it makes me happy. Because I think assists and what that means in our game in terms of point guard play at times can be undervalued. So now you have Courtney Vandersloot who is filling it up, Layshia Clarendon is having a career year, so it’s great to see point guards doing their jobs.”

Bird also said, “And I think what you see now is situations where you look at Skylar Diggins-Smith as an example, Tanisha Wright even before Skylar is another example in her last couple years in New York. You had these guards who can really put up big numbers in the scoring column playing that point guard spot.”

There are very few players that have played in the NBA or WNBA that have complied the kind of resume Sue Bird has done in her career. Ten All-Star appearances; four-time All-WNBA First-Team selection; three-time All-WNBA Second-Team selection; three-time WNBA assists leader; selected to the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of all-time; selected to the WNBA Top 20@20; a member of the WNBA All-Decade Team; two-time WNBA champion; four-time Olympic Gold medalist; five-time Russian National League champion and four-time EuroLeague champion. Add to that the WNBA all-time leader in assists. That is a resume that will land her in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame when she decides to retire. On top of that, she has left a legacy that has inspired her peers and earned the respect of her current and former teammates, coaches, and opponents.

As for her assists record being overtaken, players like Vandersloot, Clarendon, Diggins-Smith and other point guards will have their work cut out for them to challenge Bird’s record, which has no end in sight. When you consider the fact that she is averaging a career-best in assist per game in this her previously mentioned 15^th season, and with no signs she is slowing down, she could push that mark toward 3,000 if she chooses to play a few more seasons.

Knowing Bird’s makeup, that is not what is going to drive her to play more beyond this season and any season after.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Bird said. “I didn’t necessarily come into this league thinking about this milestone so I don’t really think on my way out I’ll be thinking about it either. I’ll just let the chips fall where they may.”

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 9/1/17 wnba.com article, “Sue Bird Reflects on Becoming WNBA’s All-Time Assists Leader,” by Brian Martin; 9/2/17 6 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Casey Stern and Mike Fratello; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layshia_Clarendon, and http://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Sue_Bird.