At the beginning of this month, a WNBA legend and multi-Olympic Gold Medal winner played her last game in New York as she announced before the start of this WNBA season. At the close of this week, one of the most accomplished players in not just WNBA history but NCAA and International basketball history announced that this would be her final season of playing professional basketball.
On Friday, WNBA future first ballot Hall
of Famer of the Seattle Storm Sue Bird announced that the 2022 season-her 21st
in the Women’s National Basketball Association would be her last.
“I’ve decided this will be my final year,”
Bird, 41 posted on her Twitter account @S10Bird with a photograph of her
playing basketball as a young girl. “I have loved every single minute, and
still do, so gonna play my last year, just like this little girl played her
first,” #TheFinalYear @seattlestorm.
Bird said that she had an “inkling” before
the start of the 2022 WNBA season would be here last and that she was trying to
be as “upfront” about her decision, knowing like that this would be it. But she
wanted to be absolutely positive.
As the 2022 WNBA season got underway, even
at the beginning of training camp, Bird said that she thought about things a
little bit more. But said that “deep down” knew that her 21st WNBA
season was going to be her final one. It now just became when she was going to
make the announcement. After juggling around a couple of ideas, it was not
until she and the Storm prepared for their upcoming road trip, particular the
conclusion of it which was at the New York Liberty at Barclays Center in
Brooklyn, NY not to far where she was born in Syosset, NY on Long Island.
Knowing that it was going to be her last
time playing as a professional athlete in New York is what began her “thought
process” of deciding that this season was going to be the end of her career as
a player.
“That’s kind of the how and the when. That
was the motivating factor on the timing,” Bird said on Friday on how she
arrived at this was the moment to announce her retirement.
“It’s just the right time for me,” Bird
said about this being the right time to retire.
“I feel like for every athlete, sometimes
it just really comes down to you know when you know. There isn’t really
necessarily a recipe for it. You just know when you know. And now that I know,
again, that this New York game is coming I get to share it with my family and
friends, which I’m excited about.”
Bird, a native of New York from Syosset on
Long Island is the second WNBA first ballot Hall of Famer to announce that this
season will be her last as seven-time All-Star, 2017 WNBA MVP, four-time
Defensive Player of the Year, four-time Olympic Gold Medalist, and two-time
WNBA champion Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx announced that this season-her
12th in “W” would be her last.
Bird’s retirement announcement is on the
heels of the Storm’s (10-6) 81-72 win at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY
against the New York Liberty (6-10).
Bird a New York native, who was born in
Syosset, NY on Long Island and stared at Christ the King High School, where she
won the 1998 New York State and National title after playing one season at
Syosset High.
ESPN’s Holly Rowe mentioned before the
Storm’s game at the Liberty that Bird announced that she was going to retire at
season’s end on Thursday because she felt that this was going to be the last
time that she was going to have a chance to play not to far where she began her
basketball journey and she wanted her friends and family to celebrate her
legacy, that began playing AAU hoops.
“Because I’m in New York, and it’s my last
time,” Bird said to Rowe prior to game about why it was the best time to
announce her retirement. “It really hit home. It was going to be the last time
and I want to share that. I want to share that with my family, my friends,
anybody whose watched me growing up. This is it. Last time.”
In showing their love and respect for Bird,
the Liberty players during warmups dawned shirts that said, “Thank You, Sue.
Love, New York.”
Before the game, the Liberty gifted Bird a
jersey and a hooded zip-up jacket with all the New York professional teams from
the Giants, Jets, Liberty, Brooklyn Nets, Knicks, Islanders, Yankees, Mets, Red
Bulls and, NYCFC.
When Bird started her basketball journey
as a young girl, she said that a girl should never be told “she can’t” do
anything and that no one should be “shocked” when that girl does do something
special.
When it came to one day playing in the
WNBA, Bird said, “To do something and get paid for it, that you love to do, you
know that’s got to be everyone’s dream. That’s why I think it would be great to
play if I played in the WNBA.”
Those friends and family, including her Sue’s
mom Nancy, and those that appeared at Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon got a
chance to celebrate one of the most accomplished players to ever play on the
collegiate, professional, and Olympic hardwood, who finished with 11 points,
and four assists, going 4/9 from the field, including 3/7 from three-point
range, including hitting the game clinching three-pointer at the end of the
24-second shot clock buzzer that rattled in-and-out and back in with 18.9
seconds left in the game.
In her four seasons playing for Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies, Bird individually was a two-time All American, winning the Associated Press and Naismith Player of the Year and added to the UConn National title trophy case leading them to 2000 and 2002 National titles.
In her 21-year WNBA career, most by a
player in league history, playing 19 of those 21 seasons all with the Storm,
Bird led them to four WNBA titles (2004, 2010, 2018, and 2020). She is a
WNBA-record 12-time WNBA All-Star; eight-time All-WNBA selection; three-time
WNBA assists leader (2005, 2009, 2016) and is the league’s all-time leader in career
assists (3,126), becoming the all-time assist leader passing Ticha Penicheiro on
Sept. 1, 2017 with a season-high 13 assists at Washington Mystics. She is the
only player with 3,000-plus career assists in WNBA history, reaching 3,000
career assists July 9, 2021 at Mercury.
Bird is also the WNBA’s all-time leader in
games played (561, all start), the only player in league history to play in
500-plus career games, while ranking second in career made three-pointers (972);
fourth in steals (702), and seventh in points (6,664) and counting.
Bird’s international basketball career is
just as impressive with a record five Olympic Gold Medals, tied with her former
UConn teammate and the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer Diana Taurasi of the
Phoenix Mercury.
Bird also has won five Russian National League
titles (2007, 2008, 2012-14), five EuroLeague titles (2007-10, and 2013), and
four FIBA World Cup titles.
“I feel like I’ve played as long as I can
at a very high level both physically and mentally, and it’s just gotten harder,”
Bird said while holding back tears. “So, you know when to say when, you know.”
Bird’s individual work and the success of
the Storm in her career earned her a place on each of the WNBA’s milestone
teams including the All-Decade squad (2006); the 15th Anniversary
team (2011); Top 20@20 (2016); and W25 team (2021) as one of the greatest and
most influential players in WNBA history.
To put into context the importance of Bird
to the Seattle Storm, she has been with them for 21 of their 23 seasons of
existence when she was selected by them No. 1 overall in 2002 out of UConn. She
is the only player in WNBA history to win a title in four different decades.
“The fact that I’ve been able to do it in
different decades with the same franchise, not many people can say that,” Bird
said of being able to win WNBA titles in four different 10-year spans.
Two years after being chosen No. 4
overall, she along with former teammate Lauren Jackson and head coach Ann
Donovan led the Storm to their first title in 2004 overtaking the Connecticut
Sun 2-1.
After six First-Round exits the next five seasons, Bird, and Storm, led by head coach Brian Agler returned to WNBA Finals 2010, taking down the Atlanta Dream in a 3-0 sweep to win their second title in franchise history.
The Storm would again suffer five
First-Round exits and two seasons missing the WNBA Playoffs (2014, 2015), the
Storm led by Bird, No. 1 overall picks in 2015 and 2016 respectively in Jewell
Loyd and Brianna Steward, and new head coach Dan Hughes returned to WNBA Finals
in 2018 and took down the Washington Mystics 3-0 to win their third WNBA title
in franchise history. They added their fourth title two seasons later winning
the 2020 WNBA title 3-0 over the Las Vegas Aces 3-0 in 2020 WNBA Finals, led on
the bench by assistant coach Gary Kloppenburg, who coached that season in place
of Coach Hughes.
It is one thing to be a champion and one
of the very best in your sport to do it in terms of individual success and being
the centerpiece of the success of the team. It is another thing to have this
individual and team success over a long period of time.
There are times when that level of
greatness and longevity can be taken for granted, especially in the case of
Bird.
As ESPN NBA and WNBA analyst Monica McNutt
pointed out on the Thursday edition of ESPN’s “NBA Today,” Bird success of her
long career pushed the envelope on not just what athletes can do, but
specifically female athletes can do.
Jokingly in the past Bird said in the past
when asked when she is going to retire, she would push back by asking according
to McNutt, “Do you ask doctors when they’re going to stop practicing? Do you
ask when lawyers are going to stop practicing?”
On top of that, Bird is part of squad, now
coached by her former teammate Noel Quinn that is primed for their fifth WNBA
title in their history with Loyd and Steward still in the fold along with a
solid supporting cast of veterans in Briann January, Epiphany Prince, Jantel
Lavender, Stephanie Talbot, Reshanda Gray, Gabby Williams, who had season-high
23 points with nine boards on 10/15, shooting including going 2/3 on her triple
tries Mercedes Russell, and Ezi, Magbegor.
“I mean, I think that just appreciate her.
She deserves her flowers, and it’s great that she’s going to get them wherever
we go the rest of the season. But we got to make sure we get the win for her
too,” Stewart, who had 18 points and nine rebounds at the Liberty said to Rowe
during the in between quarter interview between the first and second periods at
the Liberty on Sunday.
It is one thing to gain appreciation from
fans and your collective peers, which Bird has gotten in her career from her
WNBA teammates with the Storm as well as her opponents. She has also gotten
that same respect from man in the NBA community.
One person who has had a front row seat to
the success UConn Lady Huskies in his teen years is ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe, also
the host of “The Lowe Post” podcast said on Thursday that the Lady Huskies
became a big part of his life and those of that part of Connecticut in terms of
their sports pastime once the then NHL Hartford Whalers left in the middle of the
1997 for Raleigh, NC to become the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Lady Huskies run of titles that began
with the 1995 undefeated squad led by now ESPN’s college basketball and WNBA
television color analyst in Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo had Lowe “in from that
moment on.”
The Lady Huskies squads of the early 2000s
led by Bird, Taurasi, Asjha Jones, Ashley Battle were as Lowe said “the peak”
of their basketball powers of NCAA.
“If we listed every single team and
individual award Sue had won, that would be the whole show,” Lowe said. “She’s
an all-time winner. An all-time great player. An all-time great teammate whose
been about the right things since she was a little girl until now. Well
deserved retirement to her. One of the all-time best ever, ever, ever.”
Richard Jefferson in praising Bird on
Thursday, talked about her from the human side of things about how that anytime
you are around her whether it is at All-Star weekend or USA Basketball, she had
an infectious smile and presence that made anyone that was around her from a
young fan to one of her peers in the NBA or the aforementioned WNBA put her on
a level “that is so elite.”
Jefferson also talked about how she spent
some time working as an intern in the front office of the Denver Nuggets a few
seasons back with Josh Kronke.
Bird said in her presser on Friday that
she has “dabbled” in some different things outside of basketball to see what
peaks her interest and what does not. She did say there are some things on the
horizon that she is looking forward to doing like being a part of NFL Hall of
Famer Peyton Manning’s media company “Peyton’s Places.”
On top of that, she will have more time to
be with her now wife in Soccer superstar and Olympic Gold Medalist Megan
Rapinoe, who she has been coupled with since late 2016.
“I hope that she gives back to the game of
basketball in a way that like she can continue all the things that she has done
up until this point,” Jefferson said. “I don’t care if it’s a GM. If it’s a
coach. Whatever it is, I just hope she continues to give back to this game
because she’s so important.”
Whatever she does once her basketball
playing career reaches its conclusion, Bird said that she is looking forward to
is referencing Hall of Famer and multiple World Series champion Derek Jeter of
the New York Yankees said when he retired is that he was look forward to being
“like a young person again.”
“So, what I realized being 41 is actually
young,” she said. “I don’t feel that way in my line of work. So, it’s really
exciting just to know what’s ahead of me. I can be young again. I can kind of
try new things and see what’s out there.”
Kendrick Perkins in his praise or Bird
talked about her longevity and how she maintained her passion and get after it,
mentality that made her an all-time great, similar to that of four-time NBA
champion and four-time Kia MVP LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and
11-time All-Star lead guard of the Phoenix Suns Chris Paul.
While the WNBA season is shorter than the
NBA season, 36 games this season to the NBA’s 82-game schedule, Bird has maintained
that high level of passion and determination that her a perennial All-Star,
All-WNBA selection, and multi-time champion, and a future first ballot Hall of
Famer.
“I want to applaud her for that, you know.
19 seasons, like that’s a hell of a run,” Perkins said of Bird’s exceptional
career. “Two decades, that’s a hell of a run of greatness, and playing at an
extremely high level.”
A little over two decades ago, the Seattle
Storm drafted a New York native who took her success that she had both at the
high school level and the collegiate level, both individually and team wise and
continued it at the professional level.
They drafted a player that became their
leader both on and off the floor not just in the Pacific Northwest but in the
world. She played with a purpose, devotion, and dedication that earned her
respect from fans, teammates, and opponents. She scored, passed, and worked her
way into being an important part of the history of not just the NCAA, WNBA, and
International basketball but the history of basketball at large.
Whether she adds another WNBA title to her
resume or not, Sue Bird will go down as one of the best players to ever play
basketball and for the rest of this season will be shown the kind of love and
appreciation that is deserving of a legend, like she got when those in
attendance at Barclays Center as the game wound down gave her a well-deserved
standing ovation as well as hugs and respect after the final buzzer from the
Liberty players.
“Unbelievable,” Bird said of her final
game as a professional in New York after the win to Rowe. “I want to thank the
New York Liberty. They really showed me a lot of love in getting my family
tickets. The team wore thank you Sue shirts to warmup. That took me totally off
guard. By surprise.”
“To all the fans that came out, thank you
so much. I’ve got people in here I’ve known my whole life. Friends, family, old
friends, new friends, some homies…It’s really been amazing. I’m so glad that I
was able to hit my final shot in my final game in New York.”
Bird added about being from New York, “This
is where I grew, you know. And anybody knows whose from New York, it teaches
you a lot about basketball. And there is a legacy here. New York basketball’s
the best. And I just tried to uphold my side of it. And now it’s time to pass
the torch.”
On the team’s focus the rest of the season, her final season, Bird said to Rowe, “Just keep getting better. This was a really good New York Liberty team. This was a great road trip for us. We went 4-1. We haven’t played with our full roster I think like three times. So, we really have a long way to go, and hopefully can peak at the right time.”
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 6/16/2022 3 p.m. “NBA Today” ESPN, presented by Hotels/com With Malika Andrews, Zach Lowe, Richard Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, and Monica McNutt; 6/19/2022 12 p.m. “Seattle Storm vs. New York Liberty” ESPN With Pam Ward, LaChina Robinson and Holly Rowe, with WNBA Halftime Report, presented by State Farm With Angel Gray and Andraya Carter; www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/leaders/fg3_html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Hurricanes; https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/leaders/stl_career.html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Storm#Season-by-season_records; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Bird; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Rapinoe; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Fowles.
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