Bird, 44, is one of the most successful players in women’s basketball history. She won five Olympic gold medals and four World Cup titles for USA Basketball. In the WNBA, she led the Seattle Storm to four championships throughout her 20-year career after helping the UConn Huskies win two NCAA championships in college.
Bird, who will be inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this September, will be responsible for a hefty chunk of the women’s team’s success, taking on the ‘Grant Hill’ role for the team, making her in charge of things like player roster and coaching staff decisions for events like the Olympics and World Cup.
“It’s really exciting,’ the 13-time WNBA All-Star said. ‘I know what it feels like to represent your country as a player. I know what it feels like to stand on the podium as a player. So now that I’m retired, to continue to be able to have impact, to continue to be a part of representing (this) country and part of a gold medal organization feels like a natural next step for me.”
In previous years, a committee had been used to determine the rosters and coaches for these events. However, Bird’s expertise and respect in the basketball community seemingly has earned her the power to make those decisions on her own moving forward.
“At this point really every experience that I had along my journey as a player is going to play a role,” Bird said. “There are just certain situations I’ve been in; there are certain experiences I’ve had throughout my time as a player that I’m sure at some point will show up and I’ll be able to tap into.
“I know myself and I am a quick learner. The way that I played the game had a lot of understanding in it, so I expect the learning curve to go quickly.”
Bird won Olympic gold medals at Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008, London in 2012, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
Will the men’s national team make the same shift?
The men’s national team does not need to. They’ve operated with a managing director for nearly two decades at this point, dating back to Jeff Colangelo, who took on the role from 2005 to 2021. Grant Hill took over the role in 2021, hence why Bird’s new position is being referred to as the ‘Grant Hill role.’
Much like how Hill now reports to the men’s national team day-to-day operations manager Sean Ford, Bird will now report to Briana Weiss in a similar manner.
When does the women’s national team play next?
The next big event for the women’s national team will be the FIBA World Cup in September 2026, with the first qualifying event for the tournament set to take place in November this year.
The short timeframe between now and the qualifying event makes Bird’s life much tougher as she’ll have to navigate a field of worthy candidates for the roster and coaching staff all while meandering through politics in her decisions. It’s hard to forget the drama that ensued ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics when it was announced that Caitlin Clark had been left off the roster.
Sue Bird making moves as a podcaster as well
Coincidentally, news of Bird’s new position comes at a time when Bird also is announcing the start of a new WNBA podcast with Vox Media titled ‘Bird’s Eye View.’ The podcast is set to debut May 16 and will be available on most major podcast platforms such as Spotify, YouTube and Apple.
The show will cover WNBA news with Bird offering her expert opinions and analysis while speaking with several influential figures from around the league.
‘It’s going to be rooted in the ways in which the conversation that I can have might be different from an analyst or journalist. It’s going to be player to player, in a sense,’ Bird told The Hollywood Reporter.
(This story has been updated with official announcement and quotes.)
