SEATTLE — One of these years — theoretically — Sue Bird is going to decide her body can no longer withstand the rigors of a WNBA season. Or it may be that she will grow weary of having to summon the mental strength through the grind that has made her among the most cerebral players the sport has seen.
Thankfully, this is not that year. The news, delivered through a medium, Instagram, that didn’t even exist when Bird was drafted by the Storm in 2002, brightened another dreary winter’s day: Bird will be back.
She’ll be back, at age 41, for her 19th season with the Storm over a span of 21 years (and counting) that includes two seasons (2013 and 2019) in which she sat out the entire year following knee surgery. She’ll be back in yet another venue, Climate Pledge Arena, where the Storm will make their debut May 6 against the Minnesota Lynx.
This would be the first offseason, Bird had said after the Storm was eliminated from the playoffs in the second round last September, in which she was genuinely undecided about her future. Certainly, no one would have faulted her if she had walked away after last year, when she earned her fifth Olympic gold medal with Team USA in August.
But Bird clearly decided she had more mileage in her game, more milestones to achieve, more titles to win — and more fun to be had. At this stage of her glorious career, it’s no longer about legacy. That was secured long ago; she’ll go down as one of the most successful and beloved athletes in Seattle sports history. No player has represented the city longer, or with more class. None has racked up more titles.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that was the lure — the chance to add a fifth WNBA ring to her collection. It wouldn’t have felt quite right for Bird to have left on the downer of an 85-80 overtime loss to Phoenix that knocked Seattle out of the playoffs — just like it wouldn’t have felt right for the Storm to play in that sparkling new arena without Bird there to grace it.
“I mean, that’s why you play,” Bird said upon returning from the Olympics in Tokyo. “That’s why I play. You know, you play because it’s fun, and you play because you enjoy it. Ultimately you’re playing to have that success, to win that championship, to win that gold medal.
“I always say, they can’t argue championships. You can sit here and argue who’s the best of all time. You could sit here and argue who is a better scorer, who’s a better passer, a better rebounder, so on and so forth. You can’t really argue championships. It’s like the one trump card that you either did, or you didn’t.”
The ingredients are all there for another Storm title run — or they will be so long as unrestricted free agents Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd are retained by the Storm. Having Bird back in the fold should be a strong selling point for management to use with both players, both of whom were All-Stars and All-WNBA selections last year.
The Storm may well have added that fifth title to Bird’s collection in 2021 if not for the foot injury that kept Stewart out of the loser-out playoff game. The Storm had the best record in the league at 16-5 at the Olympic break but seemed to lose their groove after that. And when Stewart went down with the injury that eventually required minor surgery on her left Achilles tendon, the Storm were sunk.
Bird and Stewart have become inextricably linked in much the same way that Bird and Lauren Jackson were in the early stages of Sue’s career. Bird has stated that the arrival of Stewart and Loyd at a down period for the Storm following Jackson’s retirement reinvigorated her career. The number of titles Bird and Stewart have racked up, both independent of each other and in concert on the Storm and Team USA, is astonishing.
For Bird, that list includes two high-school state titles, a high-school national title, two NCAA titles at Connecticut, five EuroLeague titles, five Olympic golds, four FIBA world championships and those four (so far) WNBA titles. It’s funny how great teams just keep following her around.
And here’s the thing: Bird can still play. As Team USA coach Dawn Staley said when Bird was named USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 2021 for her role in the Olympic gold medal, “Simply being Sue Bird is what makes her great.”
Bird’s role as a coach on the floor and inspirational leader for the Storm is obvious. But she also averaged more points, assists and minutes while committing fewer turnovers per game in 2021 than she did in 2020, a title year for Seattle. Her value as a floor general was succinctly summed up by then-coach Gary Kloppenburg during the WNBA Finals that year, when Bird at age 40 set a Finals record with 16 assists in Game 1 and broke the overall assists mark with 33 in a sweep of Las Vegas:
“Sue knows you’re open before you’re open.”
Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel said last year that Bird has earned the right to determine where and when she wants to end her career. That means that we’ll keep having these winter revelations about her plans — knowing full well that Bird will eventually have a successful second act in basketball management, coaching, business, social justice, politics, or whatever realm she chooses.
In the meantime, let’s hope Bird keeps finding new horizons to aim for on the court. She hasn’t ruled out playing for Team USA in the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney, Australia. And if the Storm racks up “One for the thumb” this season, she could decide to shoot for her first back-to-back WNBA titles in 2023.
Who knows? Maybe Sue Bird really will play forever.
