Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe reflect on their Seattle journeys on Bird’s new street

“I’ve always loved and cherished playing here in Seattle. You know when I think back, there’s just so much I can discuss… [this honor] is so special because of all those memories,” Bird told assembled media, friends, family and city officials. “And I think a lot of times in sports, you talk about records are made to be broken, and that is true 100%. 

“When I think back on my time —I think about the people I’ve met, I think about the memories we’ve made, I think about the impact our franchise has had off the court, and then, of course, I think about the championships that we won on it — and something about those achievements is they don’t come and go, they don’t get broken, they last forever. And I think that’s what makes today so special I get to add to that list of something that’s going to last forever.”

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Honoring Bird in this way is unique for a couple of reasons. First, streets being given honorary designations that appear on a secondary brown sign beneath the official street name and don’t change the postal address are more common. An ordinance to permanently change the street name is less common.

While the street sign is currently brown, official approval of the ordinance is expected in September from the Seattle City Council, at which time the current signs will be replaced with a green “Sue Bird Court N” sign denoting the permanent change.

The other rarity Bird pointed out was women receiving this kind of honor. It is not uncommon for male athletes or sports icons to be honored in this way. Seattle’s other officially renamed street for example is for Lenny Wilkens who coached the Seattle Supersonics to their 1979 NBA Championship. This was not something Bird ever even thought of as possible as a female athlete.

“I don’t think you grow up thinking about these types of things,” Bird said. “You grow up wanting to make your varsity team and wanting to get the scholarship and getting drafted, all these little milestones along the way. It’s not until later where you have even an understanding of what could be. I think, especially for a woman in sports, this isn’t commonplace.”

For Bird, this comes down to equality writ-large, even more than simply an honor for her personally.

“It speaks to this city as a sports town and how much they value that,” Bird said. “And I think, as a woman, being probably one of the first — I don’t know about ever, but definitely in Seattle — that’s really special. I’ve done a lot of firsts here, and I’m adding this to the list.”

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Sharing the moment with a fellow Seattle legend

It was a big two days for both members of Seattle’s royal couple as Bird’s ceremony came the morning after her fiancée Megan Rapinoe had her jersey retired by Seattle Reign. It is wild that two people who never envisioned themselves in or really wanted to be in Seattle ended up playing their professional careers with only their respective Seattle franchise and then together as a couple.

“[Seattle] sort of chose us and made it home. Obviously as an athlete you don’t always get to choose where you end up, but I think both of us, as soon as we landed here, immediately felt that sense of home,” Rapinoe told The Next shortly after Bird was honored on Monday. “I think both our franchises do an incredible job of integrating into the city and we brought a lot of success here, too, so it’s all mutual love when we come back.”

The twin honors gave Bird and Rapinoe a chance to move beyond careers spent focusing on the challenges of the moment.

“I think for both me and Megan, we don’t always have a true understanding of, you know, the ‘power couple’ of it all, or the impact. Yeah, sometimes you zoom out and you see it, or you feel it, or maybe you have an interaction with somebody,” Bird said after the ceremony. “But it’s in weekends like this where I think for both of us we’re just like whoa, we did a lot of cool shit, like woah we won a lot, or, whoa, we had, again, this impact, and it’s nice to take time to celebrate those things.”

Love to the fans

Another one of those things that will last forever, as Rapinoe and Bird recently mentioned in their respective speeches and on their joint podcast A Touch More, is the impact the city and its fans had on the duo, something Rapinoe’s jersey retirement speech focused heavily on.

“Just know that every time I look at that number [15 jersey], I’m going to see you,” Rapinoe said to fans watching in-stadium and on TV on Sunday. “I’m going to see every pride flag, and every trans flag, and every Black Lives Matter flag, and every equal pay flag and every fuck Portland flag. And I’m gonna see purple hair and pink hair, and the short stint of blue hair… So just know that when you’re looking up and thinking about me, I’m looking up there and thinking about all of you and all the incredible moments that we shared.”

Rapinoe shared on their podcast that she got “the ultimate assist” from Bird helping write her speech with things she regretted not saying at her own jersey retirement with the Storm in 2023. Monday provided Bird with an opportunity to expand even further on the concept.

“I do find it at times hard to fully express what I mean when I say this city is a part of me. I almost get choked up, like this city is a part of me, I’m a part of it. The same can be said for Megan,” Bird told media. “The memories that are shared, the celebrations, the heartache, everything in between — it’s this ongoing relationship.

“I think as time goes, I think this will always be special for the city, and always be special for the fan base — this relationship and what we shared — but it’s probably going to ultimately be more special to me as like a human as time goes, because it’s impacted me in such great ways. And a lot of times we talk about the impact athletes have, right? But I feel like as time has gone on I’m realizing the impact it’s had on me and really how it’s shaped me as a person, as a player, everything in between.”