UConn legend Sue Bird embracing new journey with Seattle Storm ownership group after 20 years in WNBA

Less than two years after she retired from playing basketball, UConn legend Sue Bird is back in the game.

But this time Bird will be off the court, joining the ownership group for the Seattle Storm where she played all 20 years of her WNBA career.

“This actually feels reminiscent to my rookie year in a sense,” Bird joked. “I don’t have anything preconceived on what kind of owner I’m going to be … If my player career tells me anything, it’s that all you can do is how up, bring the value that you have, the intangibles, and see how it all fits. That’s how you create teams. That’s how you create good team environments.”

Investing in the Storm has long been part of the plan for Bird after her retirement, but she deliberately took the last year to “live her life” and explore her business ventures. The future Hall of Famer is also a part owner of NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL, a co-founder of media company Togethxr and of production company A Touch More with fiancée and former USWNT star Megan Rapinoe. In the last year Bird has released a documentary about her final WNBA season and an ESPN+ series called “Sue’s Places” inspired by Peyton Manning’s series of the same name.

“I feel like it was kind of inevitable in a lot of ways. It was something that I’ve always wanted, something that I’ve always had in the back of my head,” Bird said. “One of the most valuable things in business is experience, and obviously I have a ton of experience on the court. I also have a ton of experience off the court, but that is from a player’s perspective … I also understand there’s a lot to learn. There’s a lot of curtains to pull back, and I’m really excited about understanding the business side of things.”

In two decades with the Storm, Bird led the franchise to four WNBA championships and earned a record-breaking 13 All-Star selections. Her No. 10 jersey was retired by the franchise in 2023. She also won five Olympic gold medals with Team USA, most recently at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

The Storm have undergone massive change since Bird’s retirement in 2022. The team missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years last season, then signed superstar veterans Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike in free agency this year. Seattle also unveiled a $64 million dedicated practice facility earlier this month, just the second of its kind after the Las Vegas Aces opened their exclusive headquarters last year.

UConn senior Nika Muhl, who wore Bird’s No. 10 with the Huskies, was drafted by Storm with No. 14 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, and seeing the rookie point guard enter her new facility on the first day of training camp was deeply satisfying for Bird.

“What I think is really cool and what feels really special is that the company line around the WNBA for a while was that (facilities) were a drop off from college,” Bird said. “When I opened up my social media and saw Nika going into the Storm practice facility, you saw no drop off for her. I actually thought to myself, she was probably like ‘Oh yeah, this is normal.'”

“Obviously we know it’s a big deal. We know it took a lot to get here, but for rookies coming in, it’s pretty special to see that for them there is no “drop off” anymore, and that’s a sign that our league is growing and headed in the right direction.”

Bird isn’t the first former player to move into ownership: Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie pioneered the transition when she became a part-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks in 2011, and UConn alum Renee Montgomery joined the Atlanta Dream ownership group after former Republican senator Kelli Loeffler was forced to sell her majority stake in 2021. Two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker also expressed interest in ownership after announcing her retirement Sunday.

“When I think of business and think of the room, that mythical, metaphorical room, I think you always want of have a diverse group people in that room, whether it’s diversity of thought, diversity of experience. That’s what players are going to bring to these ownership rooms,” Bird said. “There are two sides, but at the same time, we really just want the same thing. We want the league to grow. We want this to be a great business and want it to flourish, but you have to bring those two perspectives together and make it work. Now that you have players in these rooms, it’s just going to provide a little more color. It’s just going to give a little more input.”