Fans flock to see retiring Bird
One day after announcing her career will soon be over, ex-uconn star plays at Mohegan Sun Arena
UNCASVILLE — Well over an hour before the start of Friday night’s game between the Connecticut Sun and Seattle Storm, fans flocked the tunnel adjacent to the court at Mohegan Sun Arena.
From little girls to middle-aged men, everyone eagerly waited with the hopes of an interaction with Sue Bird. Many wore her jersey. Some had on Uconn gear. Others held signs honoring the star point guard, who officially announced Thursday that she’d be retiring from professional basketball at the end of this season.
Cali Durham’s eyes went wide and her face lit up as Bird signed a hand drawn poster wishing the 41-year-old a “Happy Pride Month.” The 10-year-old, wearing a green and yellow Storm No. 10 jersey, recently did a school project on Bird and has been wanting to see her play in person for a long time.
“I look up to her because she’s just one of the reasons why I feel like I can play basketball and I shouldn’t care what people think,” Durham said. “She’s just been a really big idol to me.”
A even larger group of fans formed in the same area a half hour later, again hoping to catch a glimpse of Bird. When she was announced in the Storm’s starting lineup before the game, the crowd erupted. Seattle’s other former Uconn stars, Breanna Stewart and Gabby Williams, got loud cheers, too.
The stands at Mohegan Sun Arena were fuller than they’d been all season, the lower bowl packed and much of the upper deck crowded as well. A Sun spokesperson told the Courant that the franchise sold over $15,000 worth of tickets on Thursday alone after Bird announced her retirement.
“I know she’s not the type of person that wants attention. She doesn’t want everybody to celebrate her, which is probably why she didn’t make the announcement sooner. But I also think she’s thoughtful enough to know that her fans will want to celebrate it,” former Uconn star and Connecticut Sun team president Jennifer Rizzotti told the Courant. “Even if you’re a fan of another team, it’s hard to not like her and what she stands for and how she plays the game and what she’s represented. So it’s just kind of unbelievable to think about what she’s accomplished in her career and the fact that it’s going to be over soon.”
Whether Bird made the retirement announcement or not, Rizzotti was expecting a lot of Uconn fans to be in attendance to support her, Stewart and Williams.
“There’s three former players that our fans want to celebrate,” Rizzotti said. “And we don’t mind that, we want to be a mecca for women’s basketball.”
Fans in Bird jerseys could be seen around Mohegan Sun hours before the game started. One of them was 10-year-old Maggie Artus from Groveland, Massachusetts. Artus also plays point guard and idolizes Bird, often spending hours watching her highlights on Youtube.
“I just can’t wait to see her in person,” Artus said. She said she looks up to Bird because of “how long she’s played and how she never gives up and how she takes charge on the court”
Artus made a poster that read “Sue Bird’s #1 Fan,” with “Clutch like Sue” on one side and “Keep Sue fresh” on the other, along with photos on each corner. She’d hoped to ask Bird to sign the poster and pleaded for her to come back for another year, but it was confiscated by arena security.
“She tries to emulate how Sue plays and she just watches how good she is,” Eric Artus said of his daughter. “For me, it’s just great to have a female role model for her to look up to. And now seeing [Sue] start her own business with other women in powerful positions, it’s really cool that she has someone to look up to.”
Holly Mccarthy, 31, a Uconn fan all her life, loved seeing all the young girls in Bird jerseys on Friday night. Many were the same age she was when she used to go watch Bird during her days as a Husky, looking up to the point guard the same way she did. That speaks to the legacy Bird will leave behind.
“Sue Bird is what Paige Bueckers is to these young girls,” Mccarthy said. “Someone to look up to, someone to aspire to be like. And that’s what Sue was to many people, whether it’s someone like me who never got out of playing eighth grade basketball to young women playing in the WNBA right now.”
Bird gave fans the show they were hoping for to start the game. She drained a 3-pointer from the corner for the Storm’s first points of the night and then made another from the top of the key shortly after, causing the arena to abrupt. Bird, Stewart and Williams combined to score Seattle’s first 11 points of the game.
Bird said she always circles two games at the beginning of each season: the Connecticut Sun and the Liberty in New York, her home state. Bird made the retirement announcement with her last game in New York in mind, and though she has another contest in Connecticut on July 28, playing in the state the day after breaking the news holds extra meaning.
“It’s really special,” Bird told the Courant before the game. “There’s always somebody in the state that has been a fan of the Uconn program and a fan of us as individuals and comes out here and supports us.”