WNBA and Team USA icon Sue Bird added another accolade to her resume over the weekend, becoming the only US player named to the FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2026 on Sunday.
Bird's 2026 inclusion will see her join past US inductees like South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and legendary UConn sideline leader Geno Auriemma.
A core member of USA Basketball's ongoing Olympic domination, Bird tallied five straight gold medals in her tenure with Team USA, winning every Olympic matchup she played from the 2004 Summer Games in Athens through the 2021 Tokyo tournament.
Along with her Olympic success, Bird also claimed championships at four FIBA World Cups throughout her playing career.
Most recently, USA Basketball appointed the 45-year-old legend as managing director of the nation's women's team, with Bird assuming her new role in May 2025 after retiring from a decorated WNBA career that included four league championships with the Seattle Storm.
This weekend's FIBA announcement is just the latest in Bird's string of recent honors, with the Storm immortalizing the former guard in statue form in August before her September induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
A two-time NCAA champion, Bird also saw her No. 10 UConn jersey retired into the rafters earlier this month in Storrs.
Bird will snag her next well-deserved honor in Berlin, Germany, as she joins six other players and one coach in the FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2026 induction ceremony on April 21st.
Seattle added some new hardware on Sunday, installing an eight-foot, 650-pound bronze statue of Storm icon Sue Bird outside Climate Pledge Arena — making Bird the first-ever WNBA player immortalized by a former franchise.
Unveiled ahead of Sunday's Storm clash with the Phoenix Mercury, the statue depicts Bird mid-layup in a nod to the legendary player's first and last made-shots for Seattle.
"People keep asking me what it feels like to be the first, and the truth is I never set out to be first at anything," Bird said during the ceremony. "But if being the first means that I won't be the last, if this statue means that 20 years from now there will be statues of other WNBA greats... then I'm proud to be the first."
Bird played her entire 21-year WNBA career with the Storm, leading the team to four championships (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020) before calling it quits at the end of the 2022 season. The 13-time All-Star still stands as the league's career assists leader.
"I hope [this statue] tells a simple story that greatness isn't about being perfect. It's about being persistent," added Bird, who purchased a minority stake in the 2000 expansion team after she retired. "That you can be true to yourself and still achieve extraordinary things, and that when a city believes in you, anything is possible."
"Sue's legacy isn't just written in championships — it's woven into the fabric of Seattle," Storm president and CEO Alisha Valavanis said in a statement. "Her leadership transcended basketball and helped shape a cultural shift — one that expanded who gets to lead, who gets seen, and who gets celebrated."
The city of Columbia, South Carolina, honored South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley with her very own statue this week, reflecting the three-time national champion leader's legacy as a change-maker in women's college basketball.
The 14-foot bronze likeness, which sits just next to the university's alumni center, reflects Staley's championship prowess, with the statue showing the coach on a ladder holding a cut-down basketball net.
"This statue is a tribute, but it really doesn't encompass what she's delivered for us as a community, what she's done for women’s sports, what she's done for young people, especially young women,” Columbia mayor Daniel Rickenmann told reporters before Wednesday's ceremony.
A legendary coaching resume
After her decorated pro career, the six-time WNBA All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist took over the South Carolina coaching job in 2008, building the program into the behemoth it is today.
To date, Staley has led the Gamecocks to nine SEC regular-season titles and nine conference tournament crowns as well as seven Final Fours — including appearances in the last five NCAA tournament semifinals.
The four-time National Coach of the Year is far from done, though.
Staley, who turns 55 years old on Sunday, inked a contract in January to remain with South Carolina through the 2029/30 NCAA season.
That blockbuster deal — worth over $25 million — makes her the highest paid women's college basketball coach in history.
Staley agreed to statue to increase representation
Staley's statue now joins one of former star player and now reigning three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, who saw her own likeness installed outside Colonial Life Arena in 2021.
Though initially opposed to becoming a bronze sculpture, Staley later acquiesced to the honor in order to boost the currently low numbers of US statues depicting women, particularly Black women.
"I agreed to the statue not for me, but for the girl who will walk by one day and wonder who I was," Staley said at the Wednesday unveiling. "Maybe she'll look me up. She'll see that I did some things in basketball, of course — but I hope she sees much more."
"I hope she sees that I was a champion for equity and equality. That in my own way, I pushed for change... not as someone perfect or extraordinary, but as a regular girl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn't have to knock as hard."