Sue Bird celebrated the Seattle Storm's 2020 WNBA title win with her girlfriend United States women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe supported her partner throughout the entire shortened WNBA season in Florida, which saw Bird win her fourth WNBA championship. The two spent much of their time talking about pressing social issues in the country.
The 40-year old legend has always been at the forefront of these discussions. In an interview with Don Riddell and Paul Gittings of CNN, Bird acknowledged how the WNBA has always been more progressive in terms of diversity and inclusion than that of Rapinoe's sport.
“Even though we're female athletes playing at a high level, our worlds, you know, the soccer world and the basketball world are just totally different,” Bird told CNN Sport's Don Riddell.
“And to be blunt it's the demographic of who's playing. Women's soccer players generally are cute little White girls while WNBA players, we are all shapes and sizes … a lot of Black, gay, tall women … there is maybe an intimidation factor and people are quick to judge it and put it down,” added Bird.
Rapinoe wrote about this as well, and admitted that the WNBA is way ahead of the field in this regard.
The WNBA, much like their male NBA counterparts, used the season as a platform to raise awareness on these social issues. While Bird, a member of the executive of the WNBA players' union, was busy leading the Storm to a championship, she also did not forget about her responsibility to let her voice be heard.
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