--- title: Sue Bird And Diana Taurasi Set a New Olympic Basketball Bar description: Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi set a new Olympic record for any basketball player—five gold medals. “Those two," says Megan Rapinoe, "you can place above everyone.” canonical: https://time.com/6088461/bird-taurasi-olympics-usa-women-basketball/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-08-08T14:10:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:14:04.733Z article:section: Sports og:title: Sue Bird And Diana Taurasi Set a New Olympic Basketball Bar og:description: “Those two, you can place above everyone” og:url: https://time.com/6088461/bird-taurasi-olympics-usa-women-basketball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0adb939611becd12/698a1bcb16d884252ac399a6/sue-bird-diana-taurasi-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: The Olympic Games-Tokyo 2020 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sue Bird And Diana Taurasi Set a New Olympic Basketball Bar twitter:description: “Those two, you can place above everyone” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0adb939611becd12/698a1bcb16d884252ac399a6/sue-bird-diana-taurasi-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sue Bird And Diana Taurasi Set a New Olympic Basketball Bar > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Tokyo Olympics: Sue Bird [Watch (HLS stream): Tokyo Olympics: Sue Bird](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yXtBxVpX.m3u8) (2:56)  _Published 2021-07-08. Sue Bird, 40, has assumed the role of wizened veteran, both on and off the court. Now the WNBA’s all-time assists leader, Bird will bring her extraordinary floor vision to the Tokyo Olympics, where she and teammate Diana Taurasi hope to become the first basketball players to win five Olympic gold medals._  by [Sean Gregory/Saitama, Japan](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory/Saitama, Japan Senior Correspondent Aug 8, 2021 2:10 PM UTC Sue Bird, 40, has assumed the role of wizened veteran, both on and off the court. Now the WNBA’s all-time assists leader, Bird will bring her extraordinary floor vision to the Tokyo Olympics, where she and teammate Diana Taurasi hope to become the first basketball players to win five Olympic gold medals.  by [Sean Gregory/Saitama, Japan](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory/Saitama, Japan Senior Correspondent Aug 8, 2021 2:10 PM UTC After Team USA beat Japan, 90-75, in the women’s Olympic basketball final at the Saitama Super Arena north of Tokyo on Sunday afternoon, clinching a seventh straight Olympic gold medal for the U.S.—and a fifth gold medal for [Sue Bird](https://time.com/6077126/sue-bird-tokyo-olympics/) and Diana Taurasi, a new Olympic record for any basketball player—Bird ran over to the stands to kiss and hug her fiancée, U.S. soccer star [Megan Rapinoe](https://time.com/collection-post/5888293/megan-rapinoe/), who has one gold of her own (from the London Games). Rapinoe, who finagled a media credential to be in the seats, told Bird how proud she was. “That’s some GOAT sh-t right there,” Rapinoe said a few moments later, commenting on the history that Bird and Taurasi, former college teammates at the University of Connecticut, just wrote. (GOAT is an acronym for Greatest Of All-Time). “Those two,” says Rapinoe, “you can place above everyone.” Bird, 40, told her fiancée she was very tired and very happy. After all, she and Tarasui, 39, have given the next of the world’s basketball players something to shoot for. “To get five Olympics golds is insane,” says America’s Breanna Stewart, who scored 14 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. “That’s the bar.” (Bird also told Rapinoe their close contact likely violated social distancing regulations in place throughout the Games, which wrapped up on Sunday. “I was like, it’s fine,” says Rapinoe. “I’m the rule breaker in the family.”) **Read more:** [_‘Unapologetic and Unafraid.’ Sue Bird Stares Down Olympic Glory in Tokyo and Equity Off the Court_](https://time.com/6077126/sue-bird-tokyo-olympics/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) Japan played a highly attractive style of basketball, passing, moving, challenging America’s bigger defenders, and occasionally floating in a tough layup, more than a few times getting their shot stuffed (the U.S. finished with 12 blocked shots. Japan had zero). A group of Olympics volunteers sat distanced in the first section behind one basket, a well-earned reward for all they’ve given to these Games. Still, their home-team cheers weren’t enough. Japan kept it relatively close at the half—the U.S. led by 11 at the break—but in the end, the U.S. just had too much size. Brittney Griner finished with 30 points, on 14-18 shooting. “30 piece!” a few teammates yelled as they passed her in a hallway.  Sue Bird #6 and Diana Taurasi #12 of Team USA react in celebration from the bench during the second half of the women's basketball final game between the U.S. and Japan at the Tokyo Olympic games at Saitama Super Arena on Aug. 08, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. Gregory Shamus—Getty Images The afternoon, however, belonged to Bird and Taurasi, who periodically swigged champagne at her press conference. ”No water!” she said. The pair first met at UConn in the early 2000s: when Bird was a senior in 2002, Taurasi was a sophomore. “D was annoying because she had such a cocky confidence,” says Bird. “But on the court. we always vibed. Like, from day one.” Tarausi’s the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history; Bird’s the career leader in assists. During their first Olympics, in Athens, Bird said they were there to learn. And have fun. That team stayed on a cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2; Bird and Taurasi were part of a group of younger players that frequented a nightclub on the ship, G32\. “They partied every single night,” Dawn Staley, a leader of that team, told TIME before the Olympics; Staley just coached the U.S. women to gold at the Tokyo Games. Now, Bird and Taurasi lead the way, Bird more so off the court too. She credits Rapinoe—whom she first at the 2016 Olympics in Rio—for helping her feel more comfortable using her voice. Bird’s family and friends, for example, have long known Bird is gay. But in 2017, Rapinoe convinced Bird to [publicly reveal her sexuality](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/07/20/wnba-star-sue-bird-comes-out-as-gay-says-shes-dating-uswnts-megan-rapinoe/). “What Megan helped me understand was that, yes, what I was already doing was great, living authentically,” Bird told TIME in a June interview. “But it was important to say it, because the more people that come out, that’s where you get to the point where nobody has to come out. Where you can just live. And it’s not a story.” To a degree, Bird’s already helped make that happen. In May Stewart, MVP of last year’s WNBA Finals, [announced on social media](https://people.com/sports/wnba-star-breanna-stewart-engaged-to-marta-xargay-casademont/) she was engaged to Marta Xargay, a Spanish basketball pro. “Just seeing the way that Sue has walked the path of life, both on, but more off, the court, it’s something that I aspire to,” Stewart, now a double gold medalist, told TIME. “I didn’t want to have a coming out story. I just wanted to be like, I’m engaged, and I’m happy, and that’s how it should be.” Stewart’s a member of that next wave of American players who’ve looked up to Bird and Taurasi—and could match their medal haul. While Bird insists she’s played her last Olympics, Taurasi won’t rule out 2024\. “I mean, I love Paris,” she says. “Beautiful buildings there, and great fashion. The weather sucks, but oh well.” Says Taurasi: “Sue’s going to be my plus-one.” ### **Read more about the Tokyo Olympics:** * [Naomi Osaka: ‘It’s O.K. to Not Be O.K.’](https://time.com/6077128/naomi-osaka-essay-tokyo-olympics/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [Motherhood Could Have Cost Olympian Allyson Felix. She Wouldn’t Let It](https://time.com/6077124/allyson-felix-tokyo-olympics?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [Simone Biles’ Olympic Team Final Withdrawal Could Help Athletes Put Their Mental Health First](https://time.com/6084499/simone-biles-mental-health-olympics/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [Meet 6 Heroes Who Helped Battle COVID-19 Before Competing in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics](https://time.com/6077122/tokyo-olympics-athletes-covid-19-frontlines/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [Here’s How Many Medals Every Country Has Won at the Tokyo Summer Olympics So Far](https://time.com/6083866/summer-olympics-medals-by-country-tokyo-2021/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [48 Athletes to Watch at the Tokyo Olympics](https://time.com/6077111/athletes-to-watch-toyko-olympics/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) * [The Olympic Refugee Team Was Created to Offer Hope. Some Athletes Are Running Away From It](https://time.com/6077132/tokyo-olympics-refugee-team?utm%5Fsource=roundup&campaign=olympics) ## Transcript Kind: captions Language: en-US Growing up, there was no WNBA, so the Olympics was it. That was it. I feel like when I was like 13, 14, is when I really started to like understand and I really started to dream about, like what that could be. So every time I get selected, it's like that little kid is the one getting selected. The 2020 "Wubble" season, even though you know, the Seattle Storm was the team that finished on top, the season will always go down for being a success way beyond the basketball floor. There was a lot happening for us as WNBA players, as it pertained to COVID, as it pertained to social justice, as it pertained to playing basketball. And playing basketball was kind of last on that list, to be honest. To go through that as a group, I mean, it's a connection we'll all have forever. That's really special. In a year that has been so devastating, you might have had like a moment or a pocket of time that was happy, you almost feel bad for feeling happy. We were on vacation with some friends, and Megan proposed. Like totally on a whim, wasn't planning it. 2020 has all kinds of, you know, sad memories connected to it, but then this one really happy one. Probably by nature of my position in basketball, like as a point guard, more than by nature of my personality, like I'm pretty quiet, I'm pretty shy, but on the basketball floor, I can't be that. I have to be vocal, I have to be a leader. I have to be able to like connect with my teammates. And I think some of the moments in 2020 just reinforced that. But it also taught me that there's different ways of showing up as a leader. Because obviously, you know, as a white person, being in a league that is 75%, 80%, Black and seeing how they were the ones that were leading this charge, and how I just needed to listen. How I just needed to help. I just needed to be that ally, right? That's another type of leadership, understanding when you have to take a step back. Even though you know, I'm a vet in this whole Olympic thing, and usually I could sit here and tell you some like, you know, in's and out's to tell the rookies. Like make sure you do this for opening ceremonies, make sure you're wearing that, make sure you check out this. This is a whole new experience for all of us. We have no idea what to expect. Okay, I'm definitely. This is definitely my last Olympics, I can say that. As far as the WNBA goes, it's, it's tough to say. We're in the middle of the season, so it's like. But the one thing I can say is, I've seen players before me go through this process and retirement. You know, with that comes a lot of, I guess processing. So it's hard to think about what happens after. Talk about a double edged sword. At the same time, I feel like I'm not going to know what I want to do next until I've said bye to basketball. It's like I can't do both right now. I can't like think about the future and process this. So it's all kind of jumbled. So I have to just kind of take, do one thing at a time and right now it's basketball. 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