According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, legendary WNBA point guard Sue Bird has agreed to a deal to return to Seattle Storm. She is coming off of a one year, $215,000 contract with the team. Details of her new contract are not immediately known.
40-year-old Bird has spent her entire professional career with the Storm, during which she managed to establish herself as one of the greatest point guards of all time, becoming the WNBA’s all-time leader in assists and winning four titles – the most recent of which came last season.
The unrestricted free agent is returning for her 18th season with the team that selected her No.1 overall in the 2002 WNBA draft out of Connecticut. Sue Bird has struggled with quite a few injuries in recent years. Knee problems forced her to miss the 2019 season, and limited her to 11 regular-season games last year. She helped lead the Storm to the 2020 WNBA Finals, where they won three games versus the Las Vegas Aces. She set a WNBA playoff record with 16 assists in Game 1 and 33 assists in total, in the Finals.
Additionally, she has also collected four Olympic gold medals, five All-WNBA first-team selections and has made 11 All-Star Game appearances. The future Hall of Famer and oldest player in the league is the all-time WNBA assists leader and ranks eighth in points with 6,262.
During the 2020 WNBA Finals, she said, “Through my career, I’m lucky in a way.” “My position and how I play it allows for longevity. I never really relied on my physical quickness or speed or size, obviously. So as long as I continue to add to my game from a mental perspective, I was always going to be able to stay on the floor. Assuming, again, the physical part stayed with me as well.”
In 519 games, Bird averages 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists. She has played in more games than any WNBA player ever.
