How Sue Bird’s off-court impact is still felt around Seattle

Point guard Sue Bird was the backbone of the Storm for 21 years.

She wasnt the biggest or strongest or most exuberant, but a shrewd decision-maker famous for unlocking the potential of teammates, among many other things.

Part of what endeared her most to the city of Seattle was the way she did it cerebral, composed and clutch.

But just as important remains the loyalty, the fact that she stayed in Seattle her entire career all 19 seasons.

The new Storm fan base got to grow up with her.

When Bird was a rookie, Bellinghams Carolyn Nielsen said the future WNBA assists leader was behind her in the airport security line.

Bird played with Nielsens daughter Maren in her stroller.

Maren is all grown up now, living in Seattle and the biggest WNBA fan, looking forward to each summers Storm slate.

Carolyn attended an Aug.

1 game with Maren in a Bird jersey.

Sue Bird is just such an icon in terms of power and strength and representation for women's sports, Carolyn said.

(She) has always been a path-breaker in terms of standing up for why the sport in itself is important, and not just in opposition to men's sports.

Her influence extends well beyond sports.

Bird came out to friends, family and college coaches in 2003, shortly after she turned pro, but she hadnt discussed it publicly.

Last year she told podcaster Pablo Torre that in the early 2000s she was told to embrace her straight, girl-next-door image.

Based on those and other comments, she was scared that if she wasnt seen as marketable, it would affect her career.

Bird came out publicly in 2017, saying the moment felt right.

It was just before the WNBA All-Star Game in Seattle and one of her league-record 13 selections.

In the wake of her disclosure, she described what felt like a huge hug from the hometown fans to The Advocate.

She's great for the gay community, Tausha Sheff of Kent said.

I have goose bumps, because she's one of my favorite players of all time.

She just stands for something so much bigger than basketball.

Hustler on the court, good person in the community.

She's one-of-a-kind.

She's a superstar on and off.

In the documentary "Sue Bird: In the Clutch," she said she met Reign and U.S.

national team star Megan Rapinoe at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Rapinoe and her teammates had recently been knocked out in a historic quarterfinals upset, while Bird was celebrating her fourth of five Olympic gold medal victories.

Rapinoe had been publicly out since 2012 and was a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ and racial issues.

The two soon started dating.

When two women at the top of their respective sports combined forces, that was memorable, said Queen Anne resident Elizabeth Dodson.

She described them as a power couple.

So the two of them together you're just like, OK, well then, like, we'll just all sit down and watch, because this is awesome, Dodson said.

Bird and Rapinoe got engaged in 2020 and though both are retired, they remain public figures.

They served as grand marshals for the 2024 Seattle Pride Parade.

Bird was inducted into the LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame this year.

Bird and Rapinoes production company, A Touch More, recently optioned a romance starring teammates on a womens soccer team.

Bird served as vice president of the WNBA players union and helped craft an eight-year collective bargaining agreement in 2020.

She wouldnt be around to benefit from it but helped improve working conditions for those who came later.

In retirement, shes investing in womens sports in the more literal sense.

In 2022, Bird became a part-owner of NWSL franchise Gotham FC as a minority investor.

She also joined the ownership group of the Seattle Storm two years later.

Dodson theorized that Birds combination of being incredibly talented (and) allowing herself to be accessible to people fed into her power in not only the Seattle community, but the rest of the world.

As for what she wants her legacy in the Seattle community to be, Bird cast a wide net.

There are the intangibles, the ones they preach at the summer camps she occasionally drops in on.

Just a standard of how to play the game, play to win, how to be a good teammate and how to represent a franchise and represent a city, Bird said.

Though her college career was decorated, she was part of a tradition of success at UConn.

She wasnt on Team USAs first gold-medal team.

But Bird reiterated that being part of a first, seeing the years-old Storm franchise through its first decades of existence, is huge to her.

She helped lead the Storm to four titles, in four different ways, at different points in her career 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020.

I still go back to redefining myself as a player and having to figure it out, and I was able to do that four different times in the same place, Bird said.

And that's not easy.

And dont gloss over the lean years in between.

Even though the highs are celebrated and that's why you get statues it's actually being able to overcome the lows (that develops character), Bird said.

Hopefully, thats somewhere in the legacy of Seattle basketball that I've left.

I hope every player that comes through, every team that ever puts on the uniform, strives for all those things, but in their own way..

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