Four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird re-signs with Seattle Storm

What appears to be the final — and arguably most important — offseason domino fell for the Storm when the team announced the signing of four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird on Monday.

“Seattle and the Storm franchise have been home for my entire career,” Bird said in a statement released by the team. “This is a special team and I’m looking forward to getting back on the court with them as well as representing this great city and our amazing fans.”

It had been a foregone conclusion that Bird, an unrestricted free agent and the league’s oldest player at 40, would return for her 18th season and 20th year with the franchise.

After guiding the Storm to the 2020 WNBA championship last October, she expressed a desire to defend the title assuming “my health and my body allows me to do so.”

At the time, the Storm’s ownership group was vocal about its intentions that the franchise’s most decorated player — and one of Seattle’s great sports figures — retires wearing No. 10 with the team that selected her No. 1 overall in the 2002 WNBA draft.

“Sue Bird has give so much not only to this franchise, but to this league, so quite frankly she’s earned the right to determine where and when she wants to end her career,” Storm coowner Lisa Brummel said. “We certainly hope it’s right here in Seattle.”

Bird moved a step closer to returning to the Storm when Yahoo! Sports first reported she agreed to re-sign with Seattle on Jan. 31.

However, both sides needed to be patient before finalizing the deal while the Storm orchestrated a slew of offseason moves that dramatically altered the roster and arguably weakened it’s chances of winning a second straight WNBA title.

The Storm traded All-star forward Natasha Howard and reserve sharpshooter Sami Whitcomb to the New York Liberty for two first-round 2021 draft picks and backup Stephanie Talbot.

Seattle then shipped the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft to the Dallas Lynx for secondyear forward Katie Lou Samuelson and its 2022 second-round pick.

Among a flurry of deals that day, the Storm also acquired forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan from Minnesota in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick.

And before that whirlwind of deal making, Seattle lost defensive stalwart Alysha Clark, an unrestricted free agent who signed with the Washington Mystics, and backup center Crystal Langhorne, who retired, before adding seven-time WNBA All-star Candice Dupree.