By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Retired WNBA great Sue Bird has called on team owners to become more politically active, after her Seattle Storm endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
While athlete activism is nothing new, a team publicly endorsing a political candidate is extraordinarily rare in the United States, and Bird told Reuters she wants others to follow the team’s lead.
“We are advocates for equality and opportunity,” the Storm said in their endorsement on Wednesday.
Bird, who claimed a record 13 All-Star WNBA honors during her time on the court, spent her entire 21-year career with the Storm and is now part of the team’s ownership group.
“There’s been this saying of ‘shut up and dribble,’ like athletes shouldn’t be talking about things, or maybe franchises and ownership groups shouldn’t talk about things,” said Bird, following a panel appearance for the ION network.
“But the reality is, I think, for women, if we’re not talking about these things how are you going to hear about them.”
Bird has partnered with her twice World Cup-winning fiance Megan Rapinoe in retirement, launching their A Touch More production company and podcast of the same name that appears on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
“We have to be political because we are politicized,” said Rapinoe. “We would have loved to all this time just play and to just be able to have our game speak for ourselves or honestly just live as a woman.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Diane Craft)
