Rantz: Sue Bird foolishly rejects non-existent invite from White House

Seattle Storm champion Sue Bird has rejected an invite to stop at the White House to celebrate her team’s WNBA championship. But, she never got an invite in the first place.

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“At this point does it even need to be discussed?” Bird told The Seattle Times.

She gave a similar answer to KING 5 saying she wouldn’t go to the White House if invited: “No, I wouldn’t. I’m sure he’s gonna say we’re not invited anyway, so it all works out well.”

This is a huge missed opportunity and political blunder on Bird’s part.

Good player, bad strategist

Bird may be the greatest WNBA star of all time, but she’s a lousy political strategist. If the goal is to get more people interested in the league, which saw average attendance decline 12 percent from last year to just 6,770 fans per game, why get any more political?

The Storm, which sees just 8,100 fans show up to an average game, is already political. It partners with and raises money for Planned Parenthood. That might be a good move in Seattle (though there’s no evidence to suggest it’s had a meaningful impact one way or the other on the team yet), but it’s seen as clearly “wading into the current political climate in a way that contrasts with the practices of many other sports teams…” That might make woke Progressive activists excited, but it’s certainly not bringing butts to seats.

If you want to take on the president, by all means do it. It wouldn’t be unique to the WNBA or Bird. But if your goal is to bring more people into the tent, there were two better ways to do it.

First, you could have been the adult and, if invited, you showed up to the White House and have a civil discussion with the person you disagree with. Not many people are granted an audience with the president. You could add to your Progressive bona fides with a rejection and be seen as a hero for a weekend, before your act is utterly forgotten. Or you could tell the president to his face why you disagree with him and do it in an impactful way that will get the attention of the media for more than a quarter of a news cycle. Instead, it’s a move now mostly lost because it was combined with the coverage of the parade this weekend.

Second, you could at least wait for an invite to reject. I know not many people are comfortable meeting with people they find loathsome, certainly not in a way where you don’t have total control of the scenario. I completely understand that. But by preemptively declining the invite, you’ve ceded the issue to Trump.

When asked why an invite didn’t come up, all the Trump administration would have to say is that The Storm indicated they didn’t want to accept. Why send it anyway?

The invite wasn’t going to come anyway, as Trump declined the symbolic photo-op with the last WNBA championship team. So why immediately jump into the issue? Why not wait a week or two for them to “insult” you by not inviting you? You could have made this a bigger issue about the slight, claim it was about sexism (though it’s likely more a reflection of the country’s disinterest with the league this season), and not just gain the moral high ground, but get more media coverage.

Anti-Trump fervor is high in Seattle and maybe would have brought more people to Key Arena. But the whole story is going to be mostly lost. This was a blunder.

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