Former UConn star Bird will retire after season
Legendary point guard won two national titles, four WNBA championships and five gold medals
UNCASVILLE — Sue Bird’s basketball journey took her from New York to Connecticut, where she won two national titles and emerged as an elite player for UConn.
Two decades after graduating from the state and migrating to a WNBA career in Seattle, Bird was back. She sat behind microphones at Mohegan Sun Arena late Thursday afternoon, answering questions about her decision to retire following this season.
There was symmetry in the time and place of an announcement that was months in the making.
Bird, one of the WNBA’s all-time great players, hinted last winter that the 2022 season would be her last. As the Seattle Storm season began, she studied the schedule and noticed a June 19 game at New York would her last in her home state.
So she was prompted to make public a decision she made privately long before — this is it, this is the cap on her career. She’ll perform in front of family and friends in New York Sunday, a poignant last dance for a player who rose from Long Island and starred at high school in Queens.
And the fact that word of her decision came while her team was in Connecticut, preparing to play the Sun on Friday night?
All the better.
“It wasn’t necessarily planned, but at the same time it’s special that it happened this way,” Bird said. “I’m thankful that it happened this way . ... I mean, listen, when the schedule comes out, there’s two games that I circle, mentally — the New York game and the Connecticut game and that’s because they feel like homecomings.
“I know that I’m going to get the support. I know that I’m going to be able to play in front of people that really watched me grow up. And that’s really special to me.”
Bird was an immensely popular player at UConn, winning a pair of national titles before she was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 WNBA Draft. She grew
into a sports icon in the Pacific Northwest, yet she was never far from her college community.
The five-time Olympic gold medalist played for Geno Auriemma on Team USA. She was known to drop into the gym in Storrs for an occasional summer practice and she has lived in Greenwich with her partner, soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
Auriemma was one of the people Bird alerted about her plans. She has been sharing her plans with family and friends — a lengthy list of calls and texts — and received messages throughout Thursday.
She will see Auriemma during this trip to Connecticut, but she heard from him and associate head coach Chris Dailey among other former college teammates and coaches on Thursday.
“He was just like, ‘Well, I guess it’s a pretty big deal, huh?’ ” Bird said. “That’s basically what he said.”
He said more, of course. In a statement provided by UConn, Auriemma said “there certainly isn’t anything that Sue left undone or to prove.”
“There’s going to be a lot of stories written and comparisons made about her and everything she’s done,” Auriemma said. “It really is no exaggeration to say, I don’t think in our lifetime of watching basketball, that we’ve seen anyone play that position at a higher level and for a longer period of time than Sue has.
“There’s a lot of things that have been accomplished and people will say, ‘That record will never be broken.’ The things Sue has
done, the accomplishments she’s earned — I feel pretty good that that’s never going to be done again. And if it is? Well, I wouldn’t bet on it.”
The Storm will back in Connecticut on July 17. But don’t expect any pomp and circumstance — Bird said she doesn’t want a farewell tour and she’ll hold off on a retirement ceremony in Seattle until next season.
Not that teams won’t do something to honor her as one of the best and most popular players in the history of her sport.
Bird, 41, is the WNBA’s all-time leader with 3,114 assists and has played 559 games, also the most in league history. She is second in 3-pointers (965), fourth in steals (700), and seventh in points (6,639).
Her future was a source of speculation last year, when the Storm lost to Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury in the playoffs. Bird and Taurasi,
close friends and former college and Olympic teammates, exchanged jerseys on the court after the Storm was eliminated.
Fans, sensing this might be their last glimpse of a legend, began chanting “One more year!”
In January, Bird announced on social media that she was indeed returning. When she signed her contract a month later, she admitted the chant swayed her.
Bird is averaging 7.8 points and 6.6 assists this season, still performing at a high level. Her consistency and longevity may be her lasting legacy, as the fourtime WNBA champion remained elite well into her 30s.
“I do think longevity is a big part of my career,” Bird said. “I mean, I could argue that some of my best days were in my last ... four or five years, probably since 2016. I mean, if memory serves. I was like
WNBA first-team (All Star) when I was 35. Won two championships at age 37 and 39. So I think that is a big part of it. And what I’m proud about in terms of that is I hope other players can see a career like this one, see the length of it, see the success of it, and know that they can do it, too.”
What’s next? Bird, glib and naturally funny, could work in broadcasting. She and Taurasi did an alternative broadcast during the Final Four that was a wellreceived and could evolving into a regular gig.
She’s also a co-founder — with soccer player Alex Morgan, snowboarder Chloe Kim and swimmer Simone Manuel — of TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company that promotes and covers women’s sports.
Asked if she has retirement plans, Bird said there is nothing specific on the horizon.
“In the last couple years, I’ve definitely tried to dabble in some different things outside of basketball.,” she said. “See what I like to, I don’t like there are some things on the horizon that I can look forward to . ... You never know. And and that’s really the beauty of it. One quote I always come back to and I’ve said this before, is when Derek Jeter retired, he said he was looking forward to being like a young person again. So I realize 41 is actually young. Currently I don’t feel that way in my line of work. So it’s really exciting just to know that what’s ahead of me I can be young again, I can kind of try new things and see what’s out there.”