After a legendary career that featured four WNBA titles and 13 All-Star nods, Sue Bird\u2019s legacy in Seattle is now enshrined in bronze. On Sunday \u2014 designed Sue Bird Day in the city, county and state \u2014 the Storm unveiled a statue of the point guard outside Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople keep asking me what it feels like to be the first,\u201d Bird said in a speech. \u201cThe truth is that I never set out to be the first at anything, but if being the first means I won\u2019t be the last. If this statue means that 20 years from now there will be statues of other WNBA greats \u2014 some who are in the audience and players whose names you don\u2019t even know yet \u2014 than I\u2019m proud to be the first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Bird is the WNBA\u2019s all-time assists leader, the statue features her going for a layup \u2014 a pose she selected because it represents the \u201cfull circle\u201d of her career.<\/p>\n
\u201dMy very first points in the WNBA at KeyArena as a rookie were on a layup. My very final points in the WNBA were at Climate Pledge on a layup,\u201d Bird said. \u201cNot really known for those layups, but it\u2019s something that means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 8-foot, 650-pound monument was made by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany of Rotblatt Amrany Studio, who also sculpted statues of Seattle sports legends Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Lenny Wilkens (located nearby Bird outside Climate Pledge Arena), A\u2019ja Wilson at South Carolina, Michael Jordan, and other NBA stars. Along with the pose, Bird also picked the sneakers \u2014 Nike Air Zoom Huaraches, which she wore while winning her first Olympic gold medal and first WNBA title in 2004 \u2014 as well as the jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process was interesting and really fun,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so incredible, every time I went to the studio to walk in \u2014 it\u2019s weird to see yourself in clay form \u2014 but it was like every little tweak, it just became more and more me until finally I was underneath it and I was like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s my nose. Oh, that\u2019s definitely my hair.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Former UConn teammates Diana Taurasi and Swin Cash flew in for the ceremony, while Geno Auriemma shared his congratulations in a video on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat statue, I hope the pigeons are kind to it,\u201d the coach quipped.<\/p>\n
To her credit, Bird isn\u2019t worried about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you inevitably see a little bird poop on my shoulder, don\u2019t worry about it. Just consider it family checking in and reminding me where home is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Storm are the first WNBA team to dedicate a statue to a former player. Since Bird retired following the 2022 season, the franchise also retired her No. 10 jersey and named a street near Climate Pledge Arena after her.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreatness is not just in the numbers for me, though she has plenty of those. It\u2019s not just in banners and trophies and gold medals, though she has enough of those too. Greatness is the way you change the air in the room, the way you change the air in the arena, the way you change the air in the community,\u201d Cash said. \u201cFor the city of Seattle, Sue is not just a player, she\u2019s family \u2014 as this was told to me by the lady in Nordstrom\u2019s yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebrations around the region didn\u2019t stop with the statue, either. The Space Needle flew a commemorative flag<\/a> that featured Bird, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge lit up green<\/a> in honor of the point guard and the aforementioned Mariners statues at T-Mobile Park<\/a> were adorned with her No. 10 jerseys.<\/p>\n The honors for Bird won\u2019t stop with the statue, either. In September, she\u2019ll be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame with Auriemma and Cash serving as presenters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a legendary career that featured four WNBA titles and 13 All-Star nods, Sue Bird\u2019s legacy in Seattle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,31477,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-325723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-uconn-womens-basketball","10":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}