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Exclusive Look at Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career

by | Last updated May 23, 2024 | WNBA

“Whether I retire tomorrow or in 20 years, I just want to get as much out as I can.”

Sue Bird said as a temporary basketball operations associate for the Denver Nuggets in 2018. As Bird continued to explain “But with that, I have an understanding that basketball’s not forever. At some point you’ve got to find something else, find your way, and that’s what’s so great about this.” (USA Today)

See the details of Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career Retirement Championship Ring.

Left:

The left shoulder holds the Seattle Storm logo centered below her All-Time assists accomplishment with the number of years in the WNBA and Storm wordmark.

 

North and South:
The ring’s outer edges are accented with impressive green stones.

Front:
The studded two-toned ring top features her name, framing her number in stunning diamonds.

Right:
The right shoulder paying homage to the 4 years the team secured their WNBA Championships.

Engraving and Shank:

Engraved on the inside of the ring are the years spent in the league, 2002-2022.

The shank highlights 13 beautiful diamonds that align with her years playing as an All-Star in the WNBA

Front:
The studded two-toned ring top features her name, framing her number in stunning diamonds.

Left:
The left shoulder holds the Seattle Storm logo centered below her All-Time assists accomplishment with the number of years in the WNBA and Storm wordmark.

Right:
The right shoulder paying homage to the 4 years the team secured their WNBA Championships.

North and South:
The ring’s outer edges are accented with impressive green stones.

Engraving and Shank:
Engraved on the inside of the ring are the years spent in the league, 2002-2022.

The shank highlights 13 beautiful diamonds that align with her years playing as an All-Star in the WNBA.

Sue Bird’s Seattle Storm goodbye

August 7, 2022 – Baron® Championship Rings is proud to present Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career Retirement Championship Ring.

Seattle Storm point guard and WNBA legend Sue Bird has had a long list of achievements and record sets made in over 21 years.

Fans called Sue Bird the GOAT, expressed how much she will be missed and even one fan called her an influential woman.

During the retirement press conference Bird shared “I have no regrets, I feel wonderful about my career, the people I’ve met, the things we’ve all accomplished. That’s kind of like the sum up of that and I am excited for, for the next chapter.”

Even at an early age, the WNBA legend Sue Bird already had goals of playing in the WNBA.

“To be able to do something and get paid for it that you love to do, you know that’s gotta be everyone’s dream. So you know that’s why it would be great to play in the WNBA” said a young Sue Bird in a 1998 interview.

However, Bird’s basketball goals started earlier at age 13, when she was inspired by watching Jennifer Azzi playing in the National Team against China.

She explains since in those days, WNBA was not yet created and there wasn’t a Professional Basketball.

Which lead the 13 years old Sue to think that playing on the USA Basketball Team – Olympic Basketball Team was a big career goal.

Presented by Spinbrush: The Jumpshot with Sue Bird – October 7, 2021 – After 18 seasons in the WNBA, Sue Bird has mastered the perfect spin. 🏀

The legendary point guard reflects on Game 5 of the 2018 semifinals and how her jump shot propelled the Seattle Storm to a title. #SpinbrushStories #SpinbrushSmile – The Players’ Tribune with Spinbrush

On June 24, 2016, Us Magazine highlighted 25 interesting facts to learn about Sue Bird in ‘Olympic Basketball Player Sue Bird: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me (I Went to High School With Natalie Portman)’.

Let’s take a look at our top 5 fun facts you might not know about Sue Bird:

  1. For two years I went to high school with Natalie Portman. That’s my true claim to fame.
  2. My mother is Christian. My father is Jewish. I graduated from a Catholic High School and I have Israeli citizenship.
  3. Soccer was actually my first love but eventually, basketball took that over.
  4. The first time I was ever asked for my autograph was when I was in sixth grade. My Catholic youth organization team played at halftime of St. Johns/UConn women’s basketball game and afterward, a security guard asked me. Who knew I would end up there?
  5. I wear #10 because my sister and I are both born in October.

Who Is Sue Bird?

Sue Bird was born as Suzanne Brigit Bird on October 16, 1980, in Syosset, New York, to Herschel and Nancy Bird.

She has a five years older sister named Jen, who partly inspired her to try out playing a few sports in school: basketball, soccer, tennis, and track & field.

“A simple story of a little kid wanting to be like her older sister.” Bird continued saying “I pretty much just followed everything that she did, and luckily enough for me, she picked up a basketball.”

At just 11 years old, she started playing in the Amateur Athletic Union basketball game in sixth grade.

She continued to play basketball in her freshman and sophomore years at Syosset High School. But soon after, she enrolled at Christ the King Regional High School in Queens, New York for her junior and senior years.

The Royals went 24-3 in her junior year, finished undefeated won the New York State Championship, and the National title in her senior year.

Additionally, she played in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association High School All-America Game, where she scored 11 points.

Several colleges and universities were hoping to recruit Bird including the University of Connecticut (UConn), Stanford University, and Vanderbilt University.

“Sue doesn’t consider herself the best player in the country. I think she a very good player,” said Geno Auriemma, UConn Women’s Head Coach, in a 1998 interview.

A couple of days before her decision, Bird was on the phone with Coach Auriemma and recalls him asking about her thoughts. She replied, “Well, I feel like in my heart I want to go to UConn, but I think my head might be saying, Vanderbilt.” He replied, “Well, I hope you follow your heart.”

Bird choose her heart and enrolled at the University of Connecticut, joining the women’s basketball team with the #10 jersey number.

She recalls her years at UConn as “Tough, not easy but very rewarding.”

The game-changing moment Bird remembers from UConn’s sophomore year was when Coach Auriemma set her aside and said “Anything that bad that happens, it’s your fault.”

This confused Bird at the time and he continued “Doesn’t matter. I don’t care if you turn it over or if she turns it over it’s always going to be your fault.” 

Bird understood what he was trying to say was that she needs to take responsibility for everything. At that time, Bird was more reserved and shy but that encouragement immediately broke her out of her shell.

She knew she needed to be this vocal leader. Bird’s mentality was to change everyone’s perception of her. 

As a result, she led her team to a 36-1 record in the Big East Championship, and the 2000 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament.

While in her junior season, the Huskies went 32-3 with the final loss against UConn’s Big East rival Notre Dame in the Final Four tournament.

Whereas in her senior season, the Huskies went 39-0 and Bird won the Wade Trophy, Honda Sports Award, and Naismith Award as College Player of the Year.

As Bird’s basketball days came to an end at UConn she set the following records and awards as listed:

  • Ranking No. 24 on the 1,000-point list with 1,378 points
  • Ranking No. 2 in assists with 585
  • Ranking No. 7 with 243 steals
  • Ranking No. 1 in the three-point field goal percentage (45.9) with a free throw percentage (89.2)
  • Won 2 National Championships
  • Won 3 Big East Championships and Big East regular season titles
  • The Inaugural winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award in 2000, 2001 and 2002
  • Set her overall record of 114-4
  • Became a member of the Inaugural Class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball “Huskies of Honor” Recognition Program

WNBA Presents: WNBA Revealed: Sue Bird – Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm reflects on her journey from High School to College and ultimately to the WNBA. – WNBA

WNBA Professional Career & Olympic Games

Bird identifies going from UConn to WNBA as “From the minute that we finished that season [at UConn] to getting drafted [by the WNBA’s Seattle Storm] was like a crazy whirlwind”

The Seattle Storm selected Bird as the first overall pick of the 2002 WNBA Draft.

At first, Bird had some perspective obstacles to overcome which she quickly realized to “chill out” since no one else was showing the same reaction and accepted losing games as it was dealt with it as such. 

In addition, Sue had to find a way to coexist with Lauren Jackson, who was also drafted by Seattle Storm first overall the year before.

It was noted that Jackson may have not been a fan of Bird at first with Bird’s UConn Undefeated Championship title hype, etc.

Otherwise, on the court was the total opposite story as they connected immediately.

For instance, in one of the earlier games, an announcer can be heard recalling plays such as “Oh my, Bird gives it to Lauren Jackson” as she scored a point for Storm, and “Christenson in the inbound, stolen by Bird, she hands off to Jackson for an easy layin” said another announcer.

“I’m pretty confident saying that we earned each other’s trust and kind of a respect pretty quickly where I could be in her ear. She’s not going to allow just anyone to be in her ear, I’m telling you right now,” said Bird.

The two were able to get their connection on the court fairly quickly and then their friendship came about a year later as Bird remembers. 

WNBA Presents: WNBA at 20 – 2004 – Diana Taurasi announces her arrival while Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Betty Lennox sew up Seattle’s first title- WNBA

Additionally, that friendship helped Seattle Storm win the 2004 WNBA Championship, the team’s first-ever WNBA title.

In the Summer of 2004, Bird played in her first Olympic Games.

Bird talks about her experience playing in the 2004 Summer Olympics’ United States Women’s Basketball Team as such “Fast forward to the Olympics. That was my first dose of being around Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, and Lisa Leslie and it was intimidating at first. Here I am supposed to be a leader and a vocal leader. How do you tell Lisa Leslie what to do?… You don’t.”

Bird continues “I remember Dawn Staley pulling me aside being like ‘You’re on this team for a reason, you have to do the things that got you here.'” 

Bird experienced watching Dawn while taking mental notes of how she was doing things, what she was saying and why she was saying such things. All of which helped Bird establish a good experience playing Internationally and became a contributor to the team. 

Bird remembers her winning experiences.

“Looking back, I had won everywhere I had gone.”

She continues to say “You don’t really necessarily cherish it at the time cause you’re like ‘ah it will happen again next year.’ It wasn’t until 2010, when we were about to win it [the 2010 WNBA Chapionship] again, that I realized it is actually really hard, really hard just to get back to the finals.”

Seattle Storm had won the team’s second Championship title in winning the 2010 WNBA Championship. After the finals, Bird mentioned to the media “There’s a lot of ups and downs, so to win, I can’t even describe it. It’s a very complete feeling.”

In the March of 2015, Sue Bird had a chance to make a surprise visit to Christ the King Regional High School and meet a group of students.

One of the students asked Bird “If you didn’t pursue basketball, what would you have done?” To which Bird replied “The minute I graduated [from UConn] I didn’t have to think of anything else. I was kinda lucky in that way, so I’m not sure. Right now I’m doing a lot of ESPN commentating.”

 

WNBA Presents: Sue Bird Makes History! – Watch as Sue Bird becomes the first player in WNBA history to score at least 5000 points and dish out 2000 assists! – WNBA

Sue Bird Makes History

During the 2015 Seattle Storm against the New York Liberty game, Bird becomes the first player in WNBA history to score at least 5,000 points and dish out 2,000 assists. At that time, she was the only WNBA player to make such a great achievement in basketball history. 

Since then, Seattle Storm defeated Washington Mystics 3-0 to win the 2018 WNBA Championship and defeated the Las Vegas Aces 3-0 to win the 2020 WNBA Championship.

Looking back, Bird remembers being lucky, specifically, by the age of 23 she had won everything she was part of. Since then she’s been asked the question of ‘What’s next?’ Usually, Bird’s answer is to win more. Certainly, she realizes that can’t be the answer for everything.

SeattleStormFR Presents: Sue Bird described by her peers | A Sue Bird tribute – A tribute to the incredible player – and person – that is Sue Bird. –
SeattleStormFR

“There is no better teammate than Sue. There’s no better point guard and for me no better friend. I shared a lot of moments with her on the court, off the court we played in Russia together for almost a decade. We went to college together, and Sue is the one person that has taken from herself to give to others, and that’s why she has been the best point guard I’ve ever played with.” said Diana Taurasi.

“Her deminer, I think is her number one asset. She just is always in the moment and she sees everything and she has a great antenna, I like to say. She can really dial into whatever is needed at that moment. You very rarely can catch her off guard. She is in complete control of her mind and her emotions and her body. So that allows her to control a team on the floor.” said Geno Auriemma, head coach of Team USA.

Sue Bird Makes Retirement Official

On June 16, 2022, Seattle Storm point guard and WNBA legend Sue Bird announced that the 2022 WNBA season (Bird’s 21st year in the league) would be her final one as a player in the WNBA.

Out of a 21-year career with the Storm, Bird played in 19 seasons, the most of any player in WNBA history.

She has been honored on each of the WNBA’s milestone teams including the All-Decade Team (2006), Top 15 Players (2011), Top 20@20 (2016) and was named to the W25 team in 2021 as one of the 25 greatest and most influential players in league history.

In addition, Bird has won a record five Olympic gold medals to go along with four WNBA Championships, two NCAA Championships, and five EuroLeague titles. She has also been selected to a WNBA-record 12 all-star games and has been honored as an All-WNBA selection eight times.

WNBA Presents: Sue Bird | Press Conference | Sue Announces Retirement- WNBA

A couple of years ago, “So what’s next, it’s becoming an interesting question,” says Bird in WNBA’s 2015 interview. “I want to finish my career, on the right note, whatever might look like, and go from there and see what life brings.”

This year, reporters were told that she feels like she has played as long as she can at a very high level physically and mentally.

Bird is looking forward to things that basketball seasons keep a player from, such as not having to set an alarm for early morning workouts and taking real vacations without an eye on the next year.

However, she will miss the “grind” moments, hard practices, and difficult travel schedules since they involve the team.

Bird hopes to find something that fulfills her in the way but she knows it will be hard to replace things that are part of life as a pro athlete.

CNN’s WNBA Legend Sue Bird To Retire After This Season noted the announcement made for a combination of a happy and sad day for Bird.

 

“Not a lot of people do something for their entire lives the way that athletes do,” Bird said.

Pointing out it was the end of a sporting life that began when she was 5 or 6.

She looks forward to retirement, saying she was excited and, “I get to start this new life.”

 

WNBA Presents: Exclusive Look at Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career collection

  1. Best of Sue Bird’s 2018 Season
  2. Sue Bird’s Career All-Star Highlight Mix
  3. Sue Bird’s Best AST And Buckets From WNBA Finals
  4. Sue Bird TIES for MOST CAREER WINS in WNBA History 🤩
  5. Best Of Sue Birds Assists Over The Years

Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career Retirement Championship Ring

Baron® Championship Rings: See the details of Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career Retirement Championship Ring.

On Sunday, August 7, 2022, the team set a franchise record with a sellout of 18,100. The largest crowd to ever watch a basketball game at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.

Lining up hours before the game and most of them wearing No. 10 jerseys and shirts to show their gratitude and support for the best point guard of all time in women’s games.

In fact, Seattle leads the league in average attendance, mostly due to a fanbase that consistently showed up to cheer Bird.

“We love you, Sue Bird. Thank you for everything you have given to Seattle and the game of basketball,” the Storm tweeted.

“She’s been tremendous in transcending the game,” Kelsey Plum told USA TODAY Sports.

Before the game, the Storm celebrated Bird with a touching ceremony while her teammates wore No. 10 jersey and honorary GOAT (greatest of all time) t-shirts.

Sue Bird WNBA Basketball & Olympic Career Summary

WNBA created a list of Sue Bird’s career highlights of achievements, in addition to a detailed look at achievements categorized by year. (WNBA)(Sue Bird’s Historical Basketball Career)

  • Four-time WNBA Champion (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020)
  • All-time WNBA assists leader, passing Ticha Penicheiro on Aug. 1, 2017, at Washington with dime No. 2,600; finished 2021 season with 3,048 total assists
  • In that same game on Aug. 1, 2017, at Washington, became one of only two players to accomplish a 13-assist, 0-turnover game (Jennifer Rizzotti, CLE, 14 assists and 0 turnovers, June 21, 2002, vs. NYL — since been accomplished twice by Courtney Vandersloot).
  • All-time WNBA leader in career starts, with 549. Bird has never come off the bench in her 18-year career.
  • Broke the WNBA’s all-time career games started on Aug. 5, 2017, at San Antonio, starting her 470th career game, moving past Tina Thompson
  • Only WNBA player to appear in 500 career games
  • Twelve-time WNBA All-Star (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021)
  • Five-time All-WNBA First Team (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2016)
  • Three-time All-WNBA Second Team (2008, 2010, 2011)
  • Three-time WNBA regular-season assist leader (2005, 2009, 2016)
  • Five-time Olympic gold medalist with USAB (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)
  • Four-time FIBA World Championship gold medalist with USAB (2002, 2010, 2014, 2018) & one bronze medal (2006)
  • Three-time WNBA Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award (2018, 2017, 2011 co-winner with Ruth Riley)
  • Two-time NCAA Champion at UConn (2000, 2002)
  • Named to WNBA’s W25 Team, recognizing the 25 greatest players in league history during the 25th anniversary (2021)
  • Named one of the 20 greatest players in WNBA history at the league’s 20th-anniversary celebration in 2016
  • Named one of the 15 greatest players in WNBA history at the league’s 15th-anniversary celebration in 2011
  • WNBA All-Decade Team (2006)
  • Became Seattle’s all-time leader in field goals at Los Angeles on July 25, 2017
  • Scored her 5,000th career point on Aug 2, 2015, in New York, in front of friends and family, becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 5,000 career points and record 2,000 assists
  • Recorded 3,000th career assist on July 9 at Phoenix, becoming the first player to reach a milestone
  • Has scored or assisted on 27.6% of every basket scored in Storm history, including four seasons she didn’t play with the team, and 32.9% of Storm buckets in 18 seasons with the team.
  • Scored 300+ points in 15 seasons, tied with Tina Thompson for most in WNBA history
  • No. 1 overall pick in 2002 WNBA Draft (Seattle)
  • Second-leading vote-getter in 2002 WNBA Rookie of the Year voting
  • 2002 Sportswomen of the Year
  • Sixth player to win an NCAA Championship, a WNBA Championship, and an Olympic gold medal.
  • Won a national high-school championship at Christ the King High School, a Euroleague title, and a Russian Superleague title
Seattle Storm | Story Of The Ring

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