Bird Still At Top Of Her Game

League’s Oldest Player Can Still Carry Storm When Necessary

The legend of Sue Bird has another chapter thanks to another broken nose.

The guard led the Seattle Storm into the WNBA Finals on Tuesday by scoring 22 points, including 14 in a fourth-quarter rally to beat the Phoenix Mercury 94-84, in a winner-take-all Game 5. She accomplished it while wearing a protective face mask, the result of breaking her nose for the fifth time in her career two days earlier, when she was accidentally smacked by teammate Breanna Stewart in Game 4.

“I don’t know if I’ve had a fourth quarter like this in that big a game in my life,’’ Bird said after Tuesday’s victory.

Mercury star Diana Taurasi said that fourth-quarter stretch might have been the best she’s ever seen from Bird, too — and the two played together at UConn and in Russia. “But that’s what she can do,’’ Taurasi said.

The Washington Mystics will have to overcome Bird’s skills and competitive fire if they are to win the WNBA Finals. Seattle leads the best-of-five series after winning Game 1 Friday, 89-76.

Bird is the WNBA’s all-time leader in assists and games played. She made the All-Star team for a record 11th time this year, and won the league sportsmanship award for the third time. She won two NCAA championships at UConn, plus two WNBA titles with the Storm — in 2004 and 2010 — and four Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team. She also won multiple European titles while playing in Russia during the WNBA offseason.

All that is despite having four knee surgeries and one on each hip in addition to the broken noses. And Bird, who will turn 38 next month, is the oldest player in the WNBA.

Bird says she often gets asked how much longer she will play. “They’ll even ask, ‘Why are you still playing?’ and I’m like, ‘Would you ever ask that of any other profession?’ ” She says her knees are holding up well and that she is taking her career one year at a time.

Former Storm teammate and threetime WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson said that Bird has also been a “massive mentor’’ to Stewart, who last month was named league MVP. Sitting side by side Tuesday at the Storm’s postgame news conference, Bird made comparisons to Stewart making her first WNBA Finals in her third season, just as she had in 2004.

“It’s her third year and it was my third year,’’ Bird said. “And you feel like, ‘Yeah, this is great! I’m 23. I’m probably going to be here all the time!’ ”

“I’m 24,’’ Stewart said.

“I was 23,’’ Bird said. smiling. “‘I’m probably going to be here every year. This is great!’ And then I didn’t get back for six years. And then six years later it was like, ‘I have to capitalize on the competition.’ And we did. And then, now here we are eight years later.

“I didn’t think I would ever be back, to be honest.”