CARRIE LYELL TALKS TO WNBA LEGEND SUE BIRD ABOUT PLAYING BALL AND COMING OUT, AND FINDS OUT WHY RETIREMENT IS THE LAST THING ON HER MIND

PHOTOS

HAYLEY YOUNG

HAIR + MAKE-UP

ERIN SKIPLEY

STYLING

EMILIE MASLOW

SUE WEARS

RIBBED TANK

BY ENZA COSTA

HIGH WAISTED DENIM

BY MOTHER

GOLD/LEATHER CUFF

BY JENNYBIRD

@SWAY & CAKE

The year is 2002, and 21-year-old UConn alumnus Sue Bird from Long Island, New York is heading 2,856 miles to Seattle as the first overall pick for the Storm in the WNBA draft, unsure what life on the west coast might bring.

Just a few years later, and the “ponytailed point guard” has won just about everything there is to win in women’s basketball, including the league championship, the World Championship and Olympic gold. Fast forward to today, and Sue is still in Seattle. Still playing. And, more importantly, still winning.

“The more you’re a part of sports, you come to realise how hard winning is. When you’re younger, you think it’s going to happen every year”

She’s had the kind of career most athletes could only dream of. But how did it all begin? Does she remember the first time she picked up a ball? “I don’t know if I can tell you the first time”, Sue recalls. “But I definitely have vivid memories of my sister playing in our local town league, and I would obviously get dragged to the games.

I was maybe four or five. Every dead ball situation, any time the court was clear, I’d go running out there and try to shoot the ball as many times as I could. Half-time was my time to shine! I’d run out there and I’d be shooting half-court shots. Even though I wasn’t old enough to be on a team and I had no idea what I was doing, anytime I could get out there and play basketball in some form, I was doing it, even at a very young age.”