Basketball legend Sue Bird is widely considered one of the greatest players in Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) history. Recognized by her signature slicked-back ponytail, the 5-foot-9-inch point guard spent her entire 21-year career with the Seattle Storm and accomplished a staggering number of achievements before retiring in September 2022 at the age of 41, the oldest player in WNBA history.
Bird was born in 1980 in Nassau County, New York. She was interested in sports from an early age, taking after her athletic older sister. Basketball came as a natural gift, so much so that at a St. John’s University basketball game a prescient security guard, impressed with her performance during an exhibition game at halftime, asked the 11-year-old Bird for her autograph.
Bird won several awards in high school, including New York State Player of the Year, before committing to UConn after graduation. While there, she won the Wade Trophy, Honda Sports Award, and Naismith Award as College Player of the Year, and played in a game against Notre Dame called "the best women's basketball game ever played." “Bird at the Buzzer” was published afterward, in which the game is rehashed with Bird winning the game as the buzzer went off.
In 2002, the Seattle Storm selected Bird as the first overall pick of the WNBA draft. That same year she was also named to the national team, which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou, and Nanjing, China. She later went on to play in Russia during the off-season.
During her career, Bird won a joint-record four WNBA championships with the Storm in the 2004, 2010, 2018, and 2020 seasons, making her the only WNBA player to win titles in three different decades. She went on to become the WNBA's all-time leader in both assists and career starts, with more than 3,000 and 549 respectively, and the only player in the league to have appeared in 500 career games. She also participated in a record 12 All-Star games and won five consecutive Olympic gold medals for the U.S. women's basketball team.
Off the court, Bird is known for her contributions and activism as an advocate for LGTBQ+ youth. She launched the "Love Is'' campaign and the follow-up “Love Is” fashion brand in support of LGBTQIA+ youth of color with soccer star and fiancé Megan Rapinoe and has also used her platform to support social justice causes, especially regarding Black women.