Sue Bird’s Second Act, In Her Own Words
“All the laptop stuff has been an adjustment,” she says of her new roles after retiring from basketball.
Reported by Women's Health Magazine.
Sue Bird spent two decades as one of the most decorated point guards in WNBA history. Retirement, it turns out, was just a pivot. According to Women's Health Magazine, the 45-year-old is now managing director of USA Women's Basketball — meaning she holds the keys to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic roster — and recently added WNBA studio analyst at NBC Sports to her portfolio. She also co-founded female athlete platform TOGETHXR and hosts her own podcast, Bird's Eye View. The woman is not resting.
Bird says the transition wasn't accidental — she spent her Seattle Storm off-seasons testing different lanes, including broadcasting, before the through-line became obvious. "I was just so passionate about women's sports," she says. "Once I retired, it kind of just showed itself." Her approach to every new role borrows directly from her playing days: prepare relentlessly, accept that you can't control everything, and don't let the inevitable misses derail you. The one thing that genuinely caught her off guard? Google Docs. She's still not doing spreadsheets. She leaves a lot of comments. Honestly, valid.
The Body Recalibration
The mental shift came with a physical one. Bird is candid about the fact that elite-athlete conditioning doesn't survive retirement — and that accepting that was an identity adjustment. What replaced the all-or-nothing training mentality she carried through her playing career is a marginal gains approach: six days a week, built around group fitness classes for accountability, heavy lifting to preserve muscle mass heading into perimenopause, and Pilates for recovery. "My body just feels so much better when I move it," she says — a simple truth that hits differently coming from someone who played through the kind of injuries that would sideline most people permanently.
As for the next generation of players she now helps shape? Bird is more cheerleader than cautionary tale. She's watching WNBA athletes sign million-dollar contracts and stack endorsement deals in ways that simply weren't available to her, and she sees it for what it is: generational wealth being built in real time. Her door is open when players want guidance, but she's the first to acknowledge they're largely handling their business just fine without her. That confidence in what comes after her — that's the real legacy move.
Sue Bird's second act is proof that the discipline that makes a great athlete doesn't expire when the game ends — it just finds a new court.
Read the original at Women's Health Magazine.
