As the 2024 WNBA season is in the rearview mirror and with young stars working in the offseason such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and others to improve, former star Sue Bird wanted to make a point clear about the business side of the league. With Reese inking a deal with Reebok and doing endorsements like Clark is as well, Bird spoke about the importance of how athletes, especially in the WNBA, treat themselves as a brand.

“It's really fun, rewarding, and also interesting to watch these younger athletes step into their professional careers,” Bird said when on NBC's “Meet The Press” along with soccer star Megan Rapinoe. “Obviously, Caitlin and Angel are two great examples. What I see immediately, and I think some of this has to do with NIL in college, right? Like so much earlier, these athletes are thinking about themselves as businesses, as brands, and it's amazing because they're carrying that with them to the WNBA. And so everything's just bigger.”

“They just seem so much more self aware, in that way, in a business sense, than I ever was at that age. I would say that you ever were [to Rapinoe] , because that just wasn't our worlds, right? But now they're in that world. And so my only advice is usually just to make sure they keep basketball the main thing, because at the end of the day, that is your vehicle. It's your vehicle to, Angel Reese has a podcast. It's her vehicle to be a podcaster, right? Whatever Caitlin ends up doing, it's the vehicle to get you to that point.”

Bird on balancing basketball and business for Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese

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Bird has spoken many times about the Indiana Fever star in Clark and the Chicago Sky star in Reese. In this specific interview however, she makes the point clear that while the business side of basketball has been more emphasized, they should still focus on the sport as well, comparing it to LeBron James.

“So you always want to make sure that part doesn't fall off, and I think now we're experiencing it a little bit in retirement,” Bird said. “We experienced it towards the end of our careers. It's a balance. You have to find that balance. But when you look at some of the other athletes, particularly men who've set a little bit of a blueprint in terms of the business and the sport, you never see LeBron [James] miss a workout, and that's so that's just something we did at the end of our career, find that balance. And I would just always want to encourage younger people to make sure they find that balance.”

At any rate, Clark and Reese look to continue to expand their games while hopefully doing so as well for the WNBA as a whole.