What’s stopping Sue Bird from coaching in WNBA, college?

Sue Bird is one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, but when asked about potentially coaching at some point, Bird seemed pretty against the idea.

While on the Bird & Taurasi show with Diana Taurasi, Cheryl Miller, one of the greatest women's college basketball players ever and a former coach, asked Bird if she ever thought of getting into coaching now that her playing career is done.

“Every now and then, I get a little tickle, a little itch to do it, but strictly the X's and O's, strategy part. When I think of subbing, when I think of recruiting, I'm out,” Bird said. “I think of the life. It's really the life, too. The travel, we just lived that. I don't want to live it again.”

Miller was persistent in trying to persuade Bird to become a coach, telling her she wouldn't have to do as much of the parts she doesn't enjoy; her coaching staff would. Miller also told her that coaching in college would not be as well-suited for her as the WNBA.

“Pros, you'd be perfect,” Miller told Bird.

Bird then asked Taurasi, a three-time WNBA champion and one of Bird's UConn and EuroLeague teammates, if she would have any interest in coaching when she decides to retire.

“Absolutely not. I want to do this,” Taurasi said, referring to a media career.

WNBA legend Sue Bird not interested in coaching

Bird spent 21 years with the WNBA's Seattle Storm, playing a league-record 19 seasons and winning four WNBA titles along the way. Like most WNBA players, Bird also played overseas, spending her entire European basketball career in Russia with Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Moscow Region, and UMMC Ekaterinburg. She won five Russian league and EuroLeague titles in her time in Russia. In her four years at UConn from 1998 to 2002, Bird also won two national championships.

Miller, who dominated college basketball from 1982 to 1986 at USC, winning three Naismith Player of the Year awards and two national titles, went into coaching immediately after graduating from USC. She began as an assistant for the Trojans, spending five seasons on the staffs of Linda Sharp and Marianne Stanley. In 1993, she became USC's head coach, a position she held for two seasons, compiling a 42-14 record.

From 1997 to 2000, Miller served as the Phoenix Mercury's head coach and general manager. The Mercury reached the WNBA semifinals three times in her four seasons and lost in the WNBA Finals in 1998. Miller resigned following a tumultuous 2000 season and did not return to coaching until 2014 when she became the head coach at Langston University, an HBCU in Oklahoma. She spent one season at Langston and coached three seasons at Cal State Los Angeles from 2016 to 2019.

If Bird did decide to go into coaching, she would likely have plenty of opportunities. In addition to her long playing career, she learned from the likes of Geno Auriemma, Gary Kloppenburg, Lin Dunn, Anne Donovan, Dan Hughes, and Brian Agler over the past 25 years, giving her a leg up on other potential coaching candidates.