What happened next was the startling part, both because of Bird’s casual frankness and the significance of her words.
“You’re 40 years old, I don’t know if you’ll do another Olympics …” the reporter began.
“No. I won’t,” Bird interjected, like someone delivering news of a death while doing the dishes.
With those brief words Tuesday at Saitama Super Arena after Team USA beat Nigeria 81-72 to open pool play at the Tokyo Games, Bird confirmed on an Olympic stage what many had expected.
It was stunning to consider, nonetheless. Since she was called up to the U.S. national team in April 2002, Bird has collected four straight Olympic gold medals, four World Cup gold medals and one pesky World Cup bronze. She is one of 11 players to win titles in college and the WNBA as well as gold medals in the World Cup and the Olympics. With four WNBA championship to her name, she was the league’s first athlete to win a title in three decades.
Bird leaving USA Basketball is like Michael Phelps leaving USA Swimming or Tim Duncan retiring from the Spurs. When she, along with her similarly legendary backcourt mate Diana Taurasi, no longer suits up for the U.S. women, it will mark the end of an era.
“It ends an incredible legacy here at the Games,” said Team USA Coach Dawn Staley, who was part of the 1996 squad that began the program’s current streak of six straight Olympic gold medals and was Bird’s teammate at the 2004 Athens Games.
“She's [been] the top point guard in the world for a very long time. To see that end, it's hard for us as her teammates, her coaches. And it's extremely hard for the game of basketball, because she's played it unlike any other guard across the world. To see that come to an end, you're saddened by it. But at the same time, you had a chance to witness her greatness for a very long time.”
Bird would like to make history one more time before she goes. She and Taurasi could become the first basketball players to win five gold medals at the Olympics at these Games, surpassing countrywomen Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie and Tamika Catchings. No man has more than Carmelo Anthony’s three.
A major part of Bird’s ability to contend for so many medals is the continuity that is core to the women’s team — which, with Bird and 39-year-old Taurasi’s departure on the horizon, is in a transition period at these Summer Olympics.
The U.S. women are seeking their seventh consecutive gold medal in Tokyo. But they are also searching for their identity, post-Bird and post-Taurasi.
To outsiders, their role on the world stage is secure. They faced one quarter of trouble against Nigeria on Tuesday, trailing 20-17 after the first because of the D’Tigeress’ physicality and underdog ferocity. A 23-0 run in the second quarter took care of that, even as Nigeria played strong until the end, nabbing 19 offensive rebounds to the Americans’ 16 and forcing a great many of Team USA’s 25 mildly worrying turnovers.
“It’s Team USA,” Nigeria Coach Otis Hughley Jr. said. “It’s like starting your boxing career, and they tell you to fight Muhammad Ali in his prime.”
But to those coaches and players within the program, the U.S. women are nearing an inflection point. They have six first-time Olympians on the roster: Ariel Atkins, Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Chelsea Gray, Napheesa Collier and A’ja Wilson, the reigning WNBA MVP who led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds Tuesday in her Olympic debut. Staley is coaching her first Games, succeeding U-Conn. Coach Geno Auriemma.
“What’s unique about this particular year — [Taurasi] and I have actually talked about this among ourselves — it’s really the first time, if memory serves, we’ve had six first-timers on one team,” Bird said. “There’s always kind of been a good mix of people who have been there done that, and then the newcomers that were kind of going to take the torch eventually. So this does feel a little different in that it’s six newcomers, and that’s just kind of how the cookies crumble.”
In Tokyo, Team USA is tackling the transition period by leaning on its history. That’s no surprise for a program that feels more like a sorority, or a club that initiates members with a blood oath, than a team. The U.S. women care with their entire hearts about brutally crushing opponents.
“This is a business trip,” Wilson said last week.
“It's the culture,” Brittney Griner said. “When you love something and you take pride in it and you're really invested in it, it's a piece of you that's there. And you're going to keep coming back as long as you can.”
Staley, both as a member of the 1996 team that started the streak and the only other U.S. basketball player to serve as a flag bearer before Bird did during the Opening Ceremonies in Tokyo, provides the biggest connectivity between past and future. Like Bird, Staley is a point guard, a natural leader and voice on a team. She is also one of the women who showed Bird how to be a mentor.
“It’s always been a part of the role,” Bird said. “When you are a veteran on the team, you are always trying to give the little nuggets that are going to help the younger players.”
Staley so believes in Bird’s ability to defy the timetables that govern normal humans that she went so far as to cast doubt Tuesday over Bird’s statement that her Olympic career is wrapping up. Or, she just doesn’t want to say goodbye.
“You never count Sue out,” Staley said. “I know she said that, but she continues to play, she continues to play well … and if it is indeed her last Olympics, I’d sure like to send her off into the sunset with another medal.”
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