Sue Bird
(Born 1980)
Hall of Fame Induction: 2025
Card Shown:
2005 Rittenhouse WNBA
Position: G
Height: 5’9″
bb
bb
Sue Bird is widely considered the best point guard in WNBA history. A winner at the college, professional, and international levels, Sue won two championships in college, four in the WNBA, and five Olympic gold medals. She was a fixture in the WNBA for over 20 years, setting records for games played (580), wins (333), minutes played (18,080), and assists (3,234).
Awards and Honors
- Sue played college basketball for the University of Connecticut (UConn) for four years, winning two national championships under head coach Geno Auriemma. The 2000 championship team included Hall of Famer Swin Cash. The 2002 team, which finished 39-0 and had an average margin of victory of 26.8 points per game during the NCAA tournament, included Cash and future Hall of Famer Diana Taurasi.
- Bird won four WNBA titles in three different decades with the Storm in 2004 (with Lauren Jackson), 2010 (with Jackson and Cash), 2018 (with Breanna Stewart and Jewell Lloyd), and 2020 (with Stewart and LLoyd). The sixteen-year gap between her first and last titles is the largest in WNBA history.
- Sue was a 13-time WNBA All-Star and eight-time All-WNBA Team selection during her 19-year playing career with the Storm. She missed two additional seasons recovering from separate knee injuries that required surgery.
- Sue traveled around the world to win five Olympic gold medals between 2004 and 2021. She won in Athens, Greece (2004), in Beijing, China (2008), in London, England (2012), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016), and in Tokyo, Japan (2021). Only Taurasi (6) has more Olympic gold medals than Bird.
- Bird was selected to several WNBA anniversary teams including the 2006 WNBA All-Decade Team, the Top 15@15, the Top 20@20, and the W25 team.
Points of Interest
- Bird was drafted by the Seattle Storm with the first overall pick in the 2002 WNBA draft. Her teammate Swin Cash was selected with the second overall pick. The fourth (Asjha Jones) and sixth (Tamika Williams) overall selections were also from UConn.
- Sue was awarded the Nancy Lieberman Award, honoring the nation’s top point guard, three times during while at UConn. She also won several national player of the year awards after her senior season in college. These included the
- The Seattle Storm retired Bird’s number 10 jersey in 2023.
- In 2025, Bird was inducted into both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
- Sue finished her WNBA career with averages of 11.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game. She also shot 39.3% on three-pointers throughout her career.
Statistics
Sue Bird Statistics
provided by Basketball-Reference.com