Sue Bird, Seattle Storm’s 4-time WNBA champion, has statue unveiled outside Climate Pledge Arena

SEATTLE (AP) — Shortly before a bronze statue of Sue Bird was unveiled outside Climate Pledge Arena, an onlooking fan chimed in during a brief moment of silence.

“You’re the GOAT, Sue!”

It’s easy for Seattle fans to think so. The longtime Storm point guard already had her jersey retired and a street in the city named after her, and on Sunday became the first player in WNBA history to have a statue erected outside of a team’s home arena.

“There’s just not a lot of women that are honored in this way,” Bird said before her statue’s unveiling. “We have tons of men and I’m actually proud and honored, especially in the city of Seattle, to be with those other male athletes. Those are elite, elite athletes. I’m really proud to be in the same breath as the greats that have come through here, but even more proud to be the first WNBA player.”

Bird’s 8-foot, 650-pound statue is located close to that of former Supersonics player and coach Lenny Wilkens, who became the first person to have a statue unveiled outside Climate Pledge Arena in June. The statue depicts Bird, 44, scoring a layup, which she said was a nod to how she scored both her first and final baskets in the WNBA.

In total, the Storm’s scoring leader racked up 6,803 points to complement her WNBA-record 3,234 assists. Bird, a 13-time All-Star who won four WNBA championships, is the only player in league history to win titles across three different decades.

After she was selected No. 1 in the 2002 WNBA draft, Bird was both critical to and observed the league’s rapid ascent. While grateful for her personal accomplishments and those of the Storm, Bird takes great pride in what stars like herself and those in attendance, such as Diana Taurasi and Lauren Jackson, have done for the WNBA.

“What’s always been so wonderful about seeing it grow, where it literally right now it’s the biggest, ‘I told you so’ that anybody of us could ever have in our lives,” Bird said. “Because we knew. We knew what we had, we believed in it. We just needed other people to see it.”

Few cities were as quick to embrace the WNBA upon its inception as Seattle. The Syosset, New York, native did not take that adoration from Storm fans for granted.

“The city has given me a home, a place where I could have a career, a place where I felt welcome,” Bird said. “A place where I really grew up. I mean in a lot of ways, I really grew up here.”

Evidenced by the latest addition outside Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle is also where Bird dominated. In spending her entire career with the Storm, Bird joined the NBA’s Dirk Nowitzki and the late Kobe Bryant as the only players to spend 20 or more seasons with one franchise and have a statue erected in their likeness.

Many professional male athletes across various professional sports have been afforded such honors across the country. But as Bird noted, it has been rare for those in the women’s basketball world to receive the same treatment. Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson has a statue at her alma mater, South Carolina, and Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt does, too, next to Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena.

To join the likes of Wilson and Summitt, as well as Wilkens, in receiving a statue is a development Bird hardly takes lightly.

“This is really exciting to be – I don’t even know if honored really covers it because it’s a bronze statue that will be there forever,” Bird said. “And, it feels different when you think of it that way.”

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