Sue Bird, the basketball dynamo from Syosset, sits after Team USA practice in Manhattan with an ice bag wrapped around her left knee and calculates that from Dec. 1, 2006, through the 2008 Olympics, she’ll have had six weeks off from playing basketball.
Bird, 26, plays for the WNBA Seattle Storm in the summer, goes to Russia to play in the winter and represents her country as the starting point guard on the U.S. women’s national team.
She is among the majority of WNBA players who make the bulk of their livelihood overseas, where compensation is better and the schedule of play not as demanding.
A few top players – namely Bird’s former UConn teammate Diana Taurasi, starring right now in the WNBA Finals for the Phoenix Mercury, and Tina Thompson, a four-time WNBA champ with the Houston Comets – have been contemplating playing solely overseas because of the wear and tear on their bodies from playing year-round.
Taurasi and Thompson will be joining Bird on the national team when they play Sept. 26-20 in the FIBA Americas Championship to qualify for the Olympics. The three also will play together for Spartak Moscow.
Bird, who has won championships at practically every level from Christ the King high school to the Olympics, realizes as much as anyone how tough it is to keep playing – she had arthroscopic surgery on her left knee in July to repair a torn meniscus and barely missed a beat – but she’s going to keep it up.
“It’s tough, I think every individual will have their own opinion on this based on how old they are, how many years they’ve played,” she said. “For some, they have family to think about and children and things like that. I think it’s going to be unique to everybody. For me personally, the WNBA is something that I think it’s a privilege to play on your home soil and something that I really enjoy. It’s the best competition, and I know the compensation isn’t the same as overseas, but it’s still something that is pretty important to me.
“With that being said, it’s hard to play year-round, it really is. I think it catches up to you, and you have to be smart about it, financially speaking and physically speaking. I mean, a lot of people they think playing overseas is the way to go: It’s not as demanding on your body, the money’s more, you get your summer off, that type of ideal. But I know that if there’s a WNBA, I’m going to want to play in it. That’s just me. I bet if you ask me in four years, that might change,” she said, and laughs.
The WNBA will be negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement this off-season. And with a lucrative new TV contract with ESPN, many are expecting that salaries will increase. Salaries for the four-month season start at $32,500 and go up to $93,000 for top players. Those superstars can triple their salaries overseas.
“Women’s basketball players, it’s an interesting situation we’re all in right now,” Bird said. “You have the WNBA, which is the best competition, it’s in America, family and friends can see you play, it’s fun. You have overseas, which is less demanding, but it may not be as good competition. But there’s definitely more compensation, and unfortunately you end up playing year-round because you’re doing those things. You throw in national team stuff in there and you’re really playing year-round. … That’s definitely something to think about. It’s not how much longer do I want to play, it’s how much longer is my body going to let me play. I think that’s something that’s going to start to affect everybody and decisions will probably have to be made. I’m not at that point yet, but we’ll see what happens.”