Sue Bird Makes Retirement Official

PALMETTO, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 06: Sue Bird #10 of the Seattle Storm walks across the court after … [+] winning the WNBA Championship following Game 3 of the WNBA Finals against the Las Vegas Aces at Feld Entertainment Center on October 06, 2020 in Palmetto, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

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In news that is monumental despite being expected, WNBA icon and Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird announced Thursday that the 2022 season will be her last.

Bird’s announcement comes amid a season that looked like her final one, though she’d carefully kept her options open after signing a one-year deal at the league’s veteran minimum salary, to preserve cap space for the Storm this past offseason.

“To me, winning championships and being a part of teams that go on that journey, that’s everything,” Bird said earlier this year at her press conference announcing her re-signing with the Storm. “That’s why I play. That’s the motivator always. Nothing really matters outside of that. While money is amazing and of course we all want to be in a workplace that rewards you in those ways, I find that winning there are going to be other rewards — some monetary, some otherwise.

“I’d rather be on a team that has a chance to win if it means that the money has to get spread in a different way. That was really the motivation behind going to the franchise and having conversations around what my salary was going to be because that was the priority.”

Bird is averaging 7.8 points and 6.6 assists per game in this, her 19th WNBA season (plus two lost to injury). She is the league’s all-time leader in assists, of course, and adds to her lead with every new pass that leads to a bucket. She’s already 514 assists ahead of any other player.

Bird’s announcement comes the day before she returns to the state she first made herself a household name in, Connecticut, and she will hold a press conference there Thursday evening ahead of Friday night’s game against the Sun. Following that, she heads to New York, her home state (a Syosset native) to face the Liberty on Sunday, June 19.

But each of these moments is now imbued with the hard-to-fathom reality: they will be her last go-around.

After her trip east, she returns to Seattle for a Tuesday press conference back home. Interest will be high: she’s scored or assisted on 27.5 percent of the baskets in Seattle Storm history.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardmegdal/2022/06/16/sue-bird-makes-retirement-official/