Sue Bird taking lead role for USA women’s national team, reports say

USA Basketball is set to announce that Storm icon and part owner Sue Bird will be the managing director of the USA women’s national team, The Athletic reported Tuesday.

The announcement for Bird’s new role will come on Thursday, according to the report, which cited two unnamed sources.

Bird, 44, won five Olympic gold medals and four World Cup titles for Team USA.

She will take on the same role Grant Hill has had with the U.S. men’s team since 2023. Hill, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1996, selected the team that won the gold medal in Paris last summer.

This will mark a major shift in the structure for the U.S. women’s team, which previously employed a committee to select players. Bird will select the players and the coaches for the Olympic and World Cup teams. This move comes on the heels of Team USA barely beating France in the gold-medal game 67-66 last summer.

The U.S. women have won the gold medal at every Olympics since 1996.

According to The Athletic report, with interest in women’s basketball at a new high, USA basketball wanted to make sure interest in international competition was high among players, and Bird has the cache for players to listen.

Bird, one of the most decorated players in basketball history, learned last month she will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September. She retired from the Storm and the WNBA in 2022 after a career that saw her win four championships. She also won two NCAA titles at Connecticut.

Last year, the Storm, who retired her jersey in 2023, announced she would join the ownership of the club. She also a street named after her next to Climate Pledge Arena.

Note

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Bird will be starting a new podcast, “Bird’s Eye View” on the WNBA with the first episode coming May 16, the opening day of the season.