According to information research, Seattle point guard Sue Bird won her 324th game on Wednesday as the Storm pulled away late to overcome the WNBA’s top-ranked Las Vegas Aces 88-78. She thereby surpassed all previous winners in league history.
Bird outperformed retiring point guard Lindsay Whalen after making the announcement earlier this month that this will be her final WNBA season (323). The only two players in league history to appear in at least 300 wins are Bird and Whalen. In a tie for third place with 294 are Rebekkah Brunson and Swin Cash, the latter of whom spent four seasons in Seattle alongside Bird.
Storm coach Noelle Quinn, who played with Bird before quitting and joining the coaching staff, stated, “That’s amazing.” “She would probably say it’s because she’s old. That’s always the response. Just the longevity of an amazing player to have such impact on the game.
“It’s not only the assists with Sue, it’s making big plays, the big shots. I thought she played great defense tonight. Those intangibles that she brings, but also: She’s the GOAT, an amazing player with a long career and deserving of every single record she’s about to break because she’s played 20-something years.”
In fact, Bird downplayed the achievement as a result of the 19 seasons she has played since being selected No. 1 overall by Seattle out of Connecticut back in 2002, just like she did when she became the WNBA’s all-time leader in games and minutes played, joining the assists record she broke in 2017. She pointed out that Whalen beat Bird’s record in 480 games as opposed to 564 for Whalen.
In Bird’s WNBA debut (a Storm loss), Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, who was playing for the opposing New York Liberty, gave Bird greater credit.
“It says she’s been on a lot of good teams for a very long time,” according to Hammon. “She’s always the head of the snake — I mean that in a good way. She is who she is for a reason. She just repeatedly makes the right play, whatever that is.”
Tina Charles, a former WNBA MVP, made her Storm debut, but Seattle’s strong fourth quarter, highlighted by 11 points from Jewell Loyd and eight from Breanna Stewart, overshadowed it. Charles, who reached a contract buyout with the Mercury on Tuesday and joined Seattle as a free agency, started her first WNBA game off the bench.
Before going off the bench for the first time, Charles had started more games (373) than any other player in league history during the beginning of their careers. Seimone Augustus, a former teammate of Whalen’s who started her first 363 games before switching to the bench in 2019, was overtaken by Charles.
In her 16 minutes, Charles made her debut with 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
In the end, Bird’s milestone—far more significant than her 13 points and six assists in 25 minutes—belonged to the night.
She’s a winner, Loyd concluded.