From Athens to Beijing to London to Rio to Tokyo, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi have successfully defended Team USA’s Olympic women’s basketball title.
Bird and Taurasi have been representing the U.S. on the world’s biggest stage for close to two decades now. After defeating Japan in the Tokyo Games final, they have set the record for most Olympic basketball gold medals with five each.
The two superstars have kept Team USA’s winning tradition alive, extending the country’s Olympic streak to a whopping 55 games en route to a seventh straight championship.
“It’s 20 years of sacrifice, of putting everything aside and just wanting to win,” said Taurasi. “It’s never easy playing on this team – the pressure – but this group found a way to win and I’m just happy this group got to enjoy it.”
The legendary pairing of Bird and Taurasi goes way back. They were never teammates in the WNBA – Bird plays for Seattle Storm, Taurasi for Phoenix Mercury – but they captured multiple titles together with UConn and three European teams.
Bird is the most decorated basketball athlete in FIBA history with a total of 10 Olympics and World Cup medals (nine gold and one bronze). Bird won her first World Cup in 2002 when Taurasi was still in college, but since 2004, they have both been pivotal to the U.S. team’s basketball supremacy.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better ending. ... I feel so proud that I’ve been able to wear this uniform for as long as I have, to play alongside this one as long as I have,” Bird said about Taurasi. “We’ve won, and that’s obviously the story, but I don’t think there’s anyone else I’d rather do it with because we just have so much fun and I love you homie.”
It’s difficult to name a more iconic duo than Bird and Taurasi, who complement each other so well on the court. Bird is the all-time assists leader in the WNBA, Taurasi is the all-time points leader, and they have brought their elite playmaking and scoring to the international stage.
In Olympic history, Bird is second in all-time assists with 124, Taurasi is fourth in points with 414. They have never lost in 38 games since their Olympic debut in Athens 17 years ago.
Both long-time faces of their respective WNBA franchises, their individual and collective achievements have propelled them to the top of any basketball GOAT lists. They have blazed a trail through uncharted territory with Team USA that no basketball player of any gender has ever reached before.
5x 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇 #Tokyo2020
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 8, 2021
The first basketball players with 5 🥇 medals pic.twitter.com/j3MSqza7Nz
But as Bird always emphasizes, they were just continuing what the greats before them, including USA women’s head coach Dawn Staley, had started.
“In the ‘04 Games, I was there to learn and take the torch from Dawn and carry it,” said Bird. “Those older players taught us what it meant. Now for us, hopefully, we have left some sort of legacy with the younger players, where they now can carry that torch.”
While Taurasi said “See you in Paris” in the post-final interview (most likely a joke, but who knows), Bird made it clear that she’s retiring and leaving Team USA at the hands of her younger teammates.
Olympic MVP Breanna Stewart headlined the tournament’s All-Star Five that also includes first-time Olympian A’ja Wilson. Brittney Griner shined and even set a new Olympic basketball final scoring record of 30 points, breaking Lisa Leslie’s 29 from 1996.
Skylar Diggins-Smith, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd, and Ariel Atkins – not to mention all the others who had to be cut from the roster – are capable of continuing the dominant dynasty.
With legends-in-the-making Stewart, 26, and Wilson, 25, at the forefront, the next two decades of Team USA look secured. The Bird-Taurasi duo will definitely be missed, but the young superstars are all primed to take over and keep the torch ablaze.
