Sue Bird, who is widely regarded as the greatest women’s point guard, has won championships at every level and captured just about every award imaginable in basketball.
On Saturday morning, the former Storm star will find out if she’s going to be a first-time nominee inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bird, one of 17 finalists, has Pacific Northwest ties along with Gonzaga men’s coach Mark Few, who is on the ballot for the first time, and former Sonics analyst Marques Johnson, who starred as a player at UCLA before a decorated NBA career highlighted by his stint with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Other notable finalists include former NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Buck Williams along with former WNBA standouts Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles and Jennifer Azzi.
Additionally, coach Billy Donovan, former referee Danny Crawford, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison and the 2008 U.S. men’s basketball team are on the ballot.
Anthony has reportedly been notified that he’s been elected, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The full class of 2025 will be announced during a ceremony at the men’s NCAA tournament Final Four in San Antonio.
The 44-year-old Bird built a brilliant basketball résumé, which began when the Syosset, N.Y., native led Christ the King High in Queens, N.Y., to a 27-0 record while winning state and national titles as a prep senior.
Internationally, Bird won five Olympic gold medals, four FIBA World Cup championships and five EuroLeague Women championships with various teams in Russia.
During an illustrious four-year stint at UConn, Bird won two national titles (2000, 2002) and the Naismith College Player of the Year award in 2002 while posting a career 114-4 record.
And yet, Bird became synonymous with the Storm, the franchise that selected her No. 1 overall in the 2002 WNBA draft, and Seattle, where she played the entirety of her of 19 seasons in the league that spanned 21 years.
She won league titles in 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020 — becoming the only player to do so in three different decades.
Bird averaged 11.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 5.6 assist and 1.3 steals while shooting 43.0% from the field, 39.2% on three-pointers and 85.3% on free throws.
She retired in 2022 as a 13-time WNBA All-Star and eight-time All-WNBA selection who holds the league’s all-time assists record (3,234).
Additionally, Bird ranks first all time in games played (580), second in three-pointers (1,001), third in steals (724) and eighth in points (6,802).
Two years ago, the Storm retired Bird’s No. 10 jersey; and last year, she joined the team’s ownership group as a minority investor.
Last August, Seattle named a street after Bird. In June, she’ll join Fowles, Cappie Pondexter and Alana Beard to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.
The only prize remaining for Bird is a coveted invitation from the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Lauren Jackson, who also played her entire WNBA career with the Storm, was inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2021. Several Hall of Fame players had relatively brief stints in Seattle including Swin Cash, Tina Thompson, Katie Smith, Sheryl Swoopes and Yolanda Griffith.
This year’s inductees will be enshrined Sept. 5-6 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.
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