Kevin Pelton | ESPN
SEATTLE — In a ceremony before the Seattle Storm hosted the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday, legendary former guard Sue Bird became the first WNBA player honored by her franchise with a statue outside of Climate Pledge Arena.
“People keep asking me what it feels like to be the first,” Bird said during her speech. “The truth is that I never set out to be the first at anything, but if being the first means I won’t be the last, if this statue means that 20 years from now there will be statues of other WNBA greats — some who are in the audience and players whose names you don’t even know yet — than I’m proud to be the first.”Few players if any in league history have done more to merit recognition than Bird, who spent her entire two-decade WNBA career with the Storm, playing the bulk of it at KeyArena before the building was rebuilt and reopened as Climate Pledge Arena for Bird’s final campaign in 2022.
Over that span, Bird led Seattle to four WNBA championships, tying the most by any franchise. She also retired as the league’s all-time leader in games and minutes played as well as assists, making a record 13 All-Star appearances. Yet as other speakers (including three-time MVP and longtime teammate Lauren Jackson) highlighted, Bird’s career can’t be reduced to stats or titles alone.
“We can have that basketball conversation,” said Hall of Famer Swin Cash, who teamed with Bird to win two national titles at UConn and the 2010 championship with Seattle. “Greatness changes the game. Greatness evolves. Greatness stays and has longevity. And that’s what Sue has.”
Certainly, nothing has longevity like a statue. And that’s why for all the honors Bird has received since her career concluded, including the Storm retiring her No. 10 jersey in 2023 and the street outside Climate Pledge being renamed “Sue Bird Court” last summer — with induction in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame set for later this year — Bird said this moment stands apart.
“I don’t know if ‘honor’ even really covers it,” she told reporters, “because it’s a bronze statue that will be there forever. It feels different when you think of it that way.”
The statue, created by Rotblatt Amrany Studio sculptor Julie Rotblatt Amrany, features Bird making a layup in a pose similar to the silhouette that appears on the Climate Pledge court. After considering the options of featuring a pass or one of her trademark pull-up jumpers, Bird found symbolism in the layup.
“Some fun little fact about my career that maybe some of you know, maybe not,” Bird said. “My 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.”
Bird helped oversee details of the statue, which depicts her wearing Nike Air Zoom Huarache sneakers. Bird wore those shoes while winning her first Olympic gold medal and the Storm’s first championship, both in 2004.
“The process was interesting and really fun,” she said. “It was so incredible, every time I went to the studio to walk in — it’s weird to see yourself in clay form — but it was like every little tweak, it just became more and more me until finally I was underneath it and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s my nose. Oh, that’s definitely my hair.'”
Talk of a statue began in earnest after the Storm’s third championship in 2018 before increasing in volume when Climate Pledge opened ahead of her final season. After retirement, Bird began to believe it would become reality.
Other WNBA players, most notably A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, have been immortalized with statues at their college homes. Bird is the first outside a WNBA arena, as well as the first female athlete in the city of Seattle.
The Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball have statues of Hall of Famers Ken Griffey, Jr. and Edgar Martinez and recently announced plans to add a third statue for Ichiro Suzuki after his recent induction. And Bird joins longtime Seattle SuperSonics player, coach and executive Lenny Wilkens, whose nearby statue outside Climate Pledge was revealed in June.
“There’s just not a lot of women that are honored in this way, and we have tons of men,” Bird said. “I’m actually really proud and honored, especially in the city of Seattle, to be with those other male athletes. Those are elite, elite athletes, and I’m really proud to be in the same breath as some of the greats that have come through here but even more proud to be the first WNBA player.”
To conclude her speech, Bird said she never would have imagined this honor when she arrived in Seattle as the No. 1 pick in the 2002 WNBA draft at age 21.
“I came to Seattle as Sue Bird the basketball player while leaving as Sue Bird the Seattleite,” she said. “This statue will make sure a piece of me stays in this city forever, just like this city will always be a part of me. And when you inevitably see a little bird poop on the shoulder, don’t worry about it. Just consider it family checking in and reminding me where home is.”
