SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Sue Bird’s got 16 years under her belt – and she’s still top of her game
May 18, 2018, 6:45 AM
Sue Bird in 2014 (AP photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP photo/Elaine Thompson)
Ahead of the Seattle Storm’s opening game Sunday, May 20, star point guard Sue Bird talked to KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson about her 16 years with the team.
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Bird, who at 37 is still as much of a force on the court as ever, credits her long career with her commitment to an exercise regime every day.
“As long as you don’t stop, you can kind of just keep going … If you don’t get out of shape, you don’t have to get in shape — you just kind of stay there,” she said.
It used to be that at 30, players were already being asked about retirement, Bird said. Now, however, it’s the older players who are at the top of their game and are serving as role models for the younger ones.
“It’s all just being rewritten,” she said.
In her own life, Bird doesn’t even think about the r-word — retirement from basketball. She loves the sport too much to consider a career change anytime soon.
“I feel like I get paid to play basketball — why would I want to cut that short? Why not do that forever?” Bird said. “I think at some point other things are going to interest me more, which is fair — I just haven’t hit that point yet.”
Bird has packed quite a lot into her 16 years, including winning two WNBA championships (in 2004 and 2010) and four Olympic golds as part of the U.S. women’s team (2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, and 2016 in Rio). Bird, however, remains humble.
“Numbers to me don’t tell a point guard’s story … I think winning tells the story,” she said.
There may be a better prize than gold medals and trophies, however, to measure an athlete’s career — bobble-heads. Sunday’s game will be “Sue Bird Bobble-Head Night” — the fourth time that she has been immortalized in bobbling plastic.
“You play long enough and you get four bobbleheads,” Bird laughed. “It is my fourth iteration and it is the best by far.”
The game starts at 6 p.m. at KeyArena. For more information, visit the Seattle Storm’s official website.
