WNBA star Sue Bird has been in the spotlight lately due to being the girlfriends of U.S. Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe, but there’s a lot more about Bird to know. Rapinoe and Bird went public with their relationship in 2017, with this being Bird’s coming out moment. They revealed that they had actually been dating for several months, as well. In 2018, the pair became the first ever same-sex couple to grace the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue.”
Before her professional career and high profile relationship, Bird was a young girl born and raised in Syosset, Nassau County, New York on Long Island. Her heritage on her father’s side of the family is Ukrainian Jewish, and therefore she holds duel citizenship as an Israeli citizen as well as American.
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She played high school basketball at both Syosset High School and Christ the King Regional High School in Queens, New York, later going on to play college basketball at UConn. After college, Bird was selected by the Seattle Storm as the first overall pick of the 2002 WNBA draft. She remains a member of that team to this day, and has won three WNBA championship titles with them.
SUEโขperโขherโขo
๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏA being with extraordinary physical or mental powers, far beyond the range of normal human ability, who uses those powers to defeat evil forces (Mercury) for the protection of the general good.@S10Bird // #WeRepSeattle
๐ | https://t.co/iCkYhzw84Q pic.twitter.com/UFbRpC7tWZ
โ Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) June 5, 2019
Recently, Bird made headlines for writing an article titled, “So the President Fโing Hates My Girlfriend,” which is reference to Rapinoe’s feud with President Donald Trump. The soccer star was asked if she would accept an invitation to the White House if her team won the World Cup, to which she replied that she would not.
Trump hit back by suggesting that the team should actually win the game first before they make any presumptions. They did, and Rapinoe has since stated that the consensus among the team members seems to be unanimous in favor of not going.
“O.K. so now that that’s out of the way, I’ll answer The Question. The one that’s probably most on your mind. And by that I mean: What’s it like to have the literal President of the literal United States (of literal America) go Full Adolescent Boy on your girlfriend? Hmm. Wellโฆ.. it’s WEIRD. And I’d say I actually had a pretty standard reaction to it: which was to freak out a little,” Bird said in her essay.
Ultimately, Bird fully supports Rapinoe, and adds that their “politics are similar.”
