[1] Sue’s role model as a young child was her older sister Jen. Jen did a lot of recreation stuff to stay active.
[2] Out of all the activities, Sue’s favorite was basketball. Sue also played soccer, tennis, and track.
[3] Sue became a very good player and started playing AAU basketball in the sixth grade. She played her freshman and sophomore years at Syosset High School but wanted more competition. She decided to enroll at the basketball powerhouse Christ The King Regional High School in Queens, New York. Christ the King also produced well known basketball stars Chamique Holdsclaw, Lamar Odom, Jason Williams and Speedy Claxton.
[4] Sue spent two seasons at Christ the King and the Royals went undefeated in both seasons. In the second season her team won the New York state championship, and the national title. Sue won many awards including the New York State Player of the Year, and the New York Daily News Player of the Year. Bird was named a WBCA All-American.
[5] She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored eleven points Sue chose UConn over Stanford, Vanderbilt and many others. She chose UConn because UConn was close to home, and the UConn program had a winning tradition like the one at Christ the King.
[6] She suffered an ACL injury, eight games into her freshman season. She was not able to redshirt because she played in more than 20% of the team’s games.
[7] In her sophomore season (1999-2000) she came back to lead the team to a 36-1 record and won the Big East Championship and the 2000 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament. The Huskies went 32-3 in Sue’s junior season. The last loss was to Big East rival Notre Dame in the Final Four. That was the last loss of Sue’s college career as the Huskies went an undefeated 39-0 in Sue’s 2002 senior season. In that season, Sue won the Wade Trophy and Naismith Award as College Player of the Year. She finished her UConn career on many of the record lists. She currently ranks #24 on the 1,000 point list with 1,378 points, #2 in assists with 585, and over 200 steals. She also ranks number 1 in three point field goal percentage (45.9).
She has won two National Championships, three Big East Championships and Big East regular season titles. Bird was the inaugural winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award in 2000, given to the top point guard in the nation, and won the award in 2001 and 2002. Overall her record at UConn in games she played is a remarkable 114-4. Bird was a member of the inaugural class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut women’s basketball “Huskies of Honor” recognition program Hoping to help their record, and fan support, the Seattle Storm selected Sue with the first overall pick of the 2002 WNBA Draft. In her rookie season, Bird started all 32 games for the Storm and averaged 14.4 ppg. She was selected as a starter on the 2002 WNBA Western Conference All-Star team. She also led the Storm to their first playoff appearance. Since her rookie season she has been selected to the Western Conference All Star team. In 2004 Sue helped the Storm win its first WNBA Championship. By winning the WNBA Championship Bird became one of seven women to receive an Olympic Gold Medal, a NCAA Championship, and a WNBA Championship. The others are Ruth Riley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and fellow Huskies Swin Cash, Kara Wolters, and Diana Taurasi. [edit]International She competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 2000 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei[11]. In the 2003-2004 off-season, Bird was named to the United States 2004 Women’s Olympic Basketball Team’s roster[12]. The USA team would go on to win the gold at the games in Athens, Greece. In the 2004-2005 WNBA off-season, she played in Russia, with Storm teammate Kamila Vodichkova on the Dynamo Moscow. In the 2005-2006 WNBA off-season, she played on the same team, reaching the Russian championship and the Euroleague women’s playoffs. In the 2006-2007 WNBA off-season, she joined Jackson and fellow UConn stars Diana Taurasi and Svetlana Abrosimova on the Russian team Spartak Moscow[13] to win both the Russian Super League and the EuroLeague Women championships. In the summer of 2008, she was invited back to be on the 2008 Olympic Basketball Team. The team won the Gold medal in Beijing, China.[14] Bird was invited to the USA Basketball Women’s National Team training camp in the fall of 2009.[15] The team selected to play for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics is usually chosen from these participants. At the conclusion of the training camp, the team will travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they compete in the 2009 UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational
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