Former UConn great Sue Bird to join NBC’s WNBA coverage

Sue Bird is including one other title to her Hall of Fame resume.

The former UConn women’s basketball and WNBA great joins NBC this summer season as an in-studio host for the 2026 WNBA season.

Bird and fellow Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller will make their NBC and Peacock debut Sunday at 1 pm for NBC’s pregame present, “WNBA Showtime” forward of the 1:30 pm matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and the Atlanta Dream. Bird can even join Miller within the studio for the halftime and post-game coverage of Sunday’s Seattle Storm-Indiana Fever recreation (6 p.m.) and Monday’s Dallas Wings-Washington Mystics recreation (8 p.m.).

“I think for me, what was really a big selling point was, you know, outside of wanting to be a part of this coverage, wanting to just bring a former player’s kind of perspective, a big selling point was kind of the idea of ​​a good hang, right?” Bird stated throughout NBC’s media convention name Thursday morning. “That was a huge feeling for me. Like, it will be all of us on TV, yes, and we are talking about the game, yes, but we want to do it in a way where this is like if you’re just chilling with us, right? … I’ve done a little bit of studio work in the past, and it just kind of diffuses this idea that I had to be some broadcaster similar to maybe what we’ve seen in the past. And it’s like, no, we all just get to be ourselves. We all just get to talk basketball.”

Since retiring in 2022, Bird has remained lively within the ladies’s sports activities area. From her podcasts to her position as Team USA’s first-ever managing director, the previous Husky stays concerned with ladies’s basketball at almost each degree.

After serving to lead UConn to two nationwide championships, Bird spent 20 years within the WNBA enjoying for the Seattle Storm. The 13-time WNBA All-Star is certainly one of, if not the, all-time biggest level guards to play within the league. Bird led Seattle to 4 WNBA championships and set the WNBA career-assist report with 3,234. Bird can also be certainly one of simply two athletes to have received 5 Olympic Gold medals in ladies’s basketball (the opposite is Diana Taurasi with a report six).

“It’s all about bringing my unique perspective,” stated Bird when requested how she’ll method broadcasting. “Talking about basketball is something I really enjoy to do, no matter what hat I have on, and my relationships with players are something that I really value, and I think it’s something that allows me to see the game, because I actually know what they might be thinking, and I can bring that to people sitting at home.”

Bird joined UConn in 1998. Throughout her basketball profession, she not solely noticed faculty ladies’s basketball take off in reputation but additionally skilled the latest explosion of the WNBA’s fandom. With extra consideration than ever earlier than, Bird understands why the ladies’s basketball media panorama has additionally modified. More information shops are overlaying the sport as main TV giants, like NBC, are clamoring to get broadcast rights.

However, balancing that elevated media coverage has introduced its hurdles. WNBA information now turns into nationwide, trending headlines within the blink of an eye fixed, as gamers’ private lives have grow to be extra public than ever and on-line false narratives are given an excessive amount of energy.

“I think all of the players, all of us, throughout the course of the existence (of the WNBA), have wanted more criticism. We understand that’s a part of sports. It’s a part of conversation. It’s what gets people excited,” Bird stated. “…I think that’s a great thing. And in order to get people to have understanding and knowledge about those types of debates, they need to be covered, and they need to be covered accurately, right?

“…I personally really feel like in 20 years, there’s going to be faculty programs taught on what occurred to this league basically in a single day. And so there’s going to be some rising pains with that, and I feel we’re simply in that place proper now. I really suppose it is what makes individuals, like myself and Cheryl, actually particular to this coverage, as a result of we have lived it, we perceive it. We can deliver a distinct perspective to it. And I’m actually proud, in that means, to be part of it.”

The 2026 WNBA season began on May 8 and marks a new era in the league following a new, historic collective bargaining agreement. While the top players’ salaries are now in the seven figures, there’s a handful of on-court issues that remain at play.

In the first week of the regular season, the biggest league-wide on-court issue has been inconsistent foul calling. Some officials are calling nit-picky fouls after the slightest touch, while others aren’t calling the most obvious hits. The league has long had an issue with excess physicality; However, as Bird argues, the league may have “overcorrected.”

“I feel we’re in somewhat little bit of a rising ache and an adjustment interval,” said Bird. “You know, that is why we have seen so many fouls. That’s why we have seen video games go, you realize, two and a half hours due to the stoppage. … I’ve at all times needed to see extra freedom of motion.

“I’ve always wanted to see not a less physical game, but just one that didn’t have so much physicality and didn’t really allow for that as much. Is there probably a happy medium that we’ll all get to? Yeah, but you know with a lot of things in life, you kind of have to overcorrect, and then everyone kind of finds their balance within that.”