EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth of a five-part series exploring Sue Bird’s career leading up to her jersey retirement on June 11. Read Part 1 , Part 2, and Part 3, and Part 4.
by Mark Moschetti, Seattle Storm
Some played alongside her — or against her.
Others coached her.
Still others grew up wanting to be like her.
Beyond question, Sue Bird has left an indelible legacy ...
... on the game she loved.
... on the league she helped solidify.
... on the city she came to call home.
Different people — whether they shared the court, their coaching knowledge, or their aspirations, will have different perspectives, points of view, or personal opinions on what defines that legacy.
But they certainly can agree on this much:
With what she did and how she did it, Sue Bird played basketball unlike anyone before her ever has.
SHARING THE COURT
On Bird’s first year: “She didn’t play like a rookie. She was always years ahead of her age. She was just so steady. You would think a rookie in the WNBA with so many accolades coming in, this big name, you would think she would get shook. But she was so used to playing at the highest level, it didn’t really faze her. That’s what I really loved about her.”
On what made her so good: “I think her mental approach was really strong. She played in so many big moments, playing in the WNBA was just another thing for her. She never got too high or too low. She was consistent with the way she led the team, even as a rookie. That made her like a connector. People gravitated to her. She was a good teammate, so I think that made it easy for her to lead.
On Bird’s legacy: “For all my years of playing with Sue Bird and playing as her teammate, it kind of ruined it for the rest of my career because you expect every point guard to be like her. But you only get one Sue Bird.”
On developing their chemistry on and off the court: “The friendship that we created and the basketball we were playing, it was very special. … I think the bonds that we had as point guard and post player, we played so well together by that time. We knew it was going to be something special for years to come, and we were going to be a part of that.”
On watching from afar in Australia: “She’s amazing and is a great leader. I think just watching her journey, I’ve loved watching it. It’s super-amazing watching her grow. I still wish I could have played a few more years with her. It’s fun to watch her and be a fan and a friend.”
On Bird’s legacy: “She just had that killer instinct. She knew what had to get done, and she got it done.”
On Bird’s keen intelligence: “I think that’s what separates her, just how she thinks about the game of basketball. She studies and analyzes — that’s a natural gift. Not everyone can see the game like that. She is who she is for a reason. You can understand that as you look around the world and see who you play with, and she does things that one else does.
On getting to play with her for seven seasons: “I’ve definitely been spoiled. I played with one of the best point guards in the world. I was fortunate to learn from her what it’s like to be a pro and what it takes to be a lead person in this league. There was no one to learn from better than Sue.”
On Bird’s legacy: “It goes beyond just basketball. You see that all the time. The last couple years, she has been way more vocal with off-the-court things, as well, and has been more of a vocal leader in social and political issues. You talk about her passion, as well, and her personality started to show a little bit. Beyond basketball, she found herself, found her voice, and it just shows that you don’t always have to find it right away. It comes as you grow as a person and as you mature. She’s a winner and has won at every level. But she’s also a really great person.”
On facing a Bird-led team: “It’s going to be the team that knows the other team the best and she’s going to put her teammates in the best position to win the game every night.”
On facing Bird: “It’s hard to go against a person like that because you know she’s doing everything to win the game. There are a lot of players that play for points and rebounds. Sue plays to win.”
On Bird’s legacy: “The game doesn’t matter unless you’re playing to win, and that’s what Sue’s always done. She’s taught me that. It has been an incredible ride. In any profession, when you get to something with your best friend for 20 years, life’s good.”
SHARING THEIR KNOWLEDGE
On watching her growth as a rookie: “It took her, like all rookies, time to adapt to the speed of the game and the physicality of the game. It took her a year or so to do that. But as far as her knowledge of the game and her ability to run a team, she was not a rookie. She was a veteran when it came to knowing the game and her leadership.”
On former Sonics star Gary Payton’s input: “I went to the USA Basketball trials and watched Sue before the draft. There was a practice, and Gary Payton — the Gary Payton — was watching practice, and he walked over to me and said, ‘Oh my God — I’ve never seen anyone like Sue Bird and her ability to see the next play.’ That was just another sign to me that if someone of his caliber saw that immediately, that just reinforced to me what already was there when it came to passing and seeing the game.”
On Bird’s legacy: “What I saw in Sue was the ability to use her head. She wasn’t the fastest, wasn’t the quickest, wasn’t the strongest. But in my mind, she was always the smartest … Here’s the thing about Sue: When she’s on the court, everybody around her is better. When she’s off the court, whatever endeavor she’s involved in, she makes that endeavor better — and that is a rare trait.”
On what gave her the edge: “She’s a special combination of special talent, an extremely intelligent person and an extremely intelligent basketball player. And she’s much more athletic than most people might think. I base that on the sheer speed she played with. She was under control all the time, so she played like it was effortless. She could get from place to place up and down the floor as good as anybody.”
On coaching Bird: “I never coached Sue. We sort of worked together. She knew that I had to make decisions based on what I thought was best for the team. But she also knew that she could trust that I was going to get her viewpoint on many things … I trusted Sue as much as I trusted anybody. I’d confide in her, and she’d shoot me straight.”
On Bird’s legacy: “Clutch player. Time and time again, in the six years I coached Sue or worked with Sue, she probably hit over 20 either game-winners or game-tying shots within the last 30 seconds of the game. Everybody on our team, every year that we played not matter who was on the team, knew that Sue was going to take the last shot, or she was going to determine who was going to take the last shot — and most of the time, it was her. The ball was going to be in her hands. We had a ton of confidence in her ability to do that,”
On her loyalty to the Storm: “She had gone through a series of years where they had to rebuild the team. They hadn’t had a winning season (for a while). But the feeling was that we had a chance (in 2018) to be a good team. The part that motivating to me was she stuck around for all of that. Sometimes, players don’t stick around for the rebuilding process, and she went through it all. I was motivated to put her in a position to empower her leadership.”
On the special qualities she brought to the court: “I have been around greatness for all of my life, and Sue was the epitome and a combination of all of them. The thing I immediately noticed with Sue was how hard she worked she worked physically. I knew how good she was mentally, and had the leadership qualities. What I wanted to do was make sure that she knew and the team knew that we wanted to take advantage of those leadership abilities.”
On Bird’s legacy: “She is the epitome of a point guard — male, female, the entirety of basketball. If you say, ‘point guard,’ start with Sue Bird. The second part was her relationship with Seattle. I had never seen anything quite as binding as what I saw with her, the way the community saw her, and the way she was loyal to the community with her time. That was an incredible bond — very special, and very, very rare.”
On an ‘X’ factor that makes her so good: “She’s such a basketball connoisseur, a basketball savant. She’s so smart in the way she thinks the game, so meticulous about her preparation. She’s great because of the way she approaches the game, approaches her mind, her body, and impacts the game.’
On coaching Bird: “Always stay in communication with her, pick her brain, make sure you’re on the same page, and give her the space to lead. Sometimes, it seems as if she’s teaching the master class. The collaboration piece is key.”
On Bird’s legacy: “She has won championships, but also has been a generational talent. And she has won over the community, has won over women’s basketball fans — not just women fans, but basketball fans. She made the game better because she played it the right way, very compassionate and competitive… She’s the pinnacle; she’s the example; she’s the standard. No matter the age group, the age range, the generation, everybody knows who Sue Bird is and the type of point guard she is.”
SHARING THEIR ASPIRATIONS
On how she was influenced by Bird: “Sue has been everything for me. Growing up, wanting to go to UConn, wanting to be one of the best basketball players and point guard to play, and impact the world through basketball, Sue is the perfect example and person to emulate in all of those things. There is no one like her to play the game, and there just simply won’t be another Sue.”
On a critical but often un-noticed thing about Bird: “An extremely under-rated part that I also take from Sue is her longevity and ability to take care of her body. She has been the greatest point guard in the league for about 20 years, and it takes a lot behind the scenes to be so dominant for so long. I was the type to just lace up my shoes and go. But through Sue and Susan King Borchardt (our mutual trainer), I have learned the importance of taking care of my mind, body, sleep, and nutrition, among many things you don’t see directly on the court.”
On Bird’s legacy: “The impact Sue has on the communities and the world to try to bring awareness to many sensitive and important subjects, along with just trying to help this world become a better place with the platform basketball has given her is something I will always admire. Clearly, I have learned a lot from Sue. But her impact on the game and the world is something that will never be forgotten.”
On Bird visiting the Hawkeyes at practice during the NCAA Seattle Regionals in March: “I think whenever someone like that comments on our game and watches your game, it’s a pretty special moment, not only for myself, but for our entire program.”
On Bird’s legacy: “She’s one of the greatest to ever pick up a basketball, and she has grown the game so much. That’s what I admire about her: not only a tremendous basketball player but an even better person.”
A FINAL WORD
SUE BIRD’S LEGACY … ACCORDING TO SUE BIRD
Intelligence. Competitiveness. Leadership. Seeing the world beyond the basket and the baseline.
Sue Bird’s legacy ultimately will include all of those things, and many more.
But how does she see it?
Bird remembers a time when the WNBA was still struggling for relevancy, viewership, sponsorship dollars, fan support — just about every metric in the book.
But Bird and those of her 40-something generation of players — nearly all of whom are now retired (Diana Taurasi being the noteworthy exception) persevered.
“When I came into the league — me, Tamika Catchings, Lauren (Jackson), Diana, and I can rattle tons of other players — the league wasn’t in a bad place. We had 16 teams, but we were just kind on the cusp of that downturn.
“Then, teams started folding, teams started moving, we went from 16 to 12. Travel was changing, they were cutting corners. My first year, you could have 12 on the roster and then two on injured reserve. Then it dropped to 11 and kind of took a dip. The WNBA kind of plateaued.”
One thing that didn’t take a dip, didn’t plateau, was the quality of the basketball. Even then, Bird knew how important that was, not only to maintain the quality, but to keep raising it.
“What my generation did is we held it down basketball-wise,” she said. “The product was still a great product. Rule changes along the way helped it become more offensive-based, which is entertainment, which is good for business.
“That era will go down as some of the best teams ever. That era of player, that generation — what we did was we held it down on the court while all the other stuff was going on,” she added. “All the business stuff was crazy. People were talking bad about us. We continued to just play, and continued to play a very high level of basketball.”
The other part of her legacy, as she sees it, is leadership. Not just leadership in the general sense, but her particular style of it.
“I don’t know that I’m clinically an introvert, but you might call it an introvert version of leadership,” she said. “I’m not loud with it, I’m not demanding about it. But clearly, I have a skill at tapping into people and building teams and building chemistry and helping build that and kind of empowering people within that.”
That point was driven home to Bird in a way she didn’t quite expect. As she tells it, It came during an interview with current Las Vegas Aces star Candace Parker.
“I had to ask her a question, and her answer was such a compliment that I was touched by it,” Bird said. “She said, ‘There are a lot of leaders and there are a lot of people who have a lot to say, and leaders that talk a lot. The difference with you is people actually follow. That’s what makes you a special leader.’
“I think that’s probably the best compliment I’ve gotten,” Bird added. “That’s really the difference.”
Perhaps in Sue Bird’s case …
… that’s also really her legacy.