{"id":14374,"date":"2025-05-06T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/14374\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:54:11","slug":"wnba-legend-sue-bird-takes-on-major-role-with-usa-womens-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/14374\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Legend Sue Bird Takes On Major Role With USA Women&#8217;s Basketball Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Team USA women&#8217;s national team is getting a new managing director, as Sue Bird has agreed to the role for the 2028 Olympic cycle, per <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheAthletic\/status\/1919827149395050841?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"multivariate\">Chantel Jennings and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bird has had an illustrious career in the basketball world that has included five gold medals in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/olympics\" data-sys=\"1\" class=\"multivariate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics<\/a> and four World Cup titles for Team USA.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"mapping-embed imgPhoto\" id=\"i2639733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sue-bird.jpg\" alt=\"Sue Bird\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\"\/><br \/>\nSue Bird #6 of Team United States celebrates after defeating Team Japan 90-75 to win the women&#8217;s gold medal match between Team United States and Team Japan on day sixteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic&#8230;<br \/>\nSue Bird #6 of Team United States celebrates after defeating Team Japan 90-75 to win the women&#8217;s gold medal match between Team United States and Team Japan on day sixteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on August 08, 2021 in Saitama, Japan.<br \/>\nMore<br \/>\nPhoto by Abbie Parr\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>More basketball news: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/nba\/timberwolves-mike-conley-excited-over-draymond-green-choking-players-2068772\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"multivariate\">Timberwolves&#8217; Mike Conley &#8216;Excited&#8217; Over Draymond Green Choking Players<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bird first debuted in professional basketball with the Seattle Storm after being picked No. 1 overall in the 2002 WNBA Draft. She would spend her entire career with the Storm until her retirement at the conclusion of the 2022 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>After averaging 14.4 points, six assists, and 1.7 steals per game during her first season in the WNBA, she would finish No. 2 in Rookie of the Year voting to future Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings. It was still enough to earn WNBA First Team honors and an All-Star selection that season.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of her professional basketball career, Bird would amass 13 All-Star nods, eight All-WNBA team selections, and four championships.<\/p>\n<p>More basketball news: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/nba\/im-el-jefe-spurs-gregg-popovich-has-epic-press-conference-after-promotion-2068153\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"multivariate\">&#8216;I&#8217;m El Jefe&#8217;, Spurs&#8217; Gregg Popovich Has Epic Press Conference After Promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bird has known success for most of her basketball career, but was also faced with adversity shortly after starting her tenure at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>Eight games into her freshman year, Bird tore her ACL and lost that year of eligibility, given the number of games played.<\/p>\n<p>She came back in a major way for her sophomore season, leading the Huskies to a 36-1 record that ended with winning the 2000 NCAA Division 1 women&#8217;s basketball tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The next season ended with a loss in the Final Four, but Bird&#8217;s senior year at UConn proved to be a precursor for what would turn into a legendary basketball career.<\/p>\n<p>Bird led her school to a 39-0 record to win another championship, the Wade Trophy, the Honda Sports Award, and the Naismith Award, given to the college player of the year.<\/p>\n<p>In this next chapter of her career, Bird will look to continue her basketball success and win another gold medal, but in a different capacity with Team USA. The squad in 2028 may feature past teammates of Bird, as well as many new faces who have been a part of the recent wave of success and star power taking over women&#8217;s basketball.<\/p>\n<p>For more NBA news and rumors, head on over to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\" class=\"multivariate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Team USA women&#8217;s national team is getting a new managing director, as Sue Bird has agreed to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,5744,4109],"class_list":{"0":"post-14374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-olympics","10":"tag-team-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114463117556564640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}