WNBA legend Sue Bird announced on social media she will hang up her sneakers at end of the current season.
Bird, 41, posted, “I’ve decided this will be my final year. I have loved every single minute, and still do, so gonna play my last year, just like this little girl played her first.”
She will end her WNBA career very high on the list of the league’s all-time greatest players.
The 12-time All-Star was the first overall pick of the Seattle Storm in 2002 and she has spent her entire WNBA career with the Storm. She lead the franchise to four WNBA titles in 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020. She is the only WNBA player win titles spanning three decades.
She did not specify if she is done playing internationally. Bird was part of USA Basketball’s gold medal winning team at the Tokyo 2020 Games, Team USA’s seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal and ninth overall. Bird and fellow WNBA legend and college teammate Diana Taurasi became the first basketball players male or female to win five Olympic gold medals. Bird would be three months shy of her 44th birthday when the Paris 2024 Games begin.
Her overstuffed trophy case also has four FIBA World Championship gold medals and five EuroLeague titles with Spartak Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg.
During her storied 21-year WNBA career, she missed two seasons in 2013 and 2019 due to injury, and also missed some time this season due to COVID-19 protocols. Despite the missed time, Bird has started all 559 career games and is the only WNBA player to appear in at least 500 games.
Off the court, she served as vice president of the WNBA players’ association and helped negotiate the league and players’ landmark collective bargaining agreement in 2020. She also held a front office position with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets as their Basketball Operations Assistant.
“I just really felt strongly about announcing my retirement, saying it was my last year so I can share that with my family and my friends, all the people in New York who have watched me growing up so they can come and see me play for the last time in my home state. So I’m excited about that. It’s also bittersweet.”
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