Sue Bird Sees Herself in Caitlin Clark and Fever After Stephanie White Hire
WNBA legend Sue Bird has been an outspoken advocate for Indiana Fever sensation Caitlin Clark from Clark's time at the University of Iowa through her first season playing professional basketball.
Bird can relate to the pressure that Clark must deal with, given the stature and expectations both of them had when entering the WNBA. In fact, Bird discussed the jarring similarities between her situation as a rookie and that of Clark during the most recent episode of her "A Touch More" podcast — which ended with her appearing to forecast Indiana's future.
"It happened to me," Bird began after co-host (and fiancée) Megan Rapinoe noted that both Clark and Angel Reese had their head coaches fired after their rookie season. "In 2002, my rookie year, not that different from both Angel and Caitlin. A little more similar to Caitlin, because we made the playoffs.
"So we were a team that had young talent, a lot of expectations because of... back-to-back No. 1 picks [in the WNBA Draft]," Bird added. Aliyah Boston and Clark were also consecutive No. 1 overall picks for Indiana.
"The season totally was up and down," Bird continued. "Made the playoffs, lost in the first round to the eventual champion... and a month, maybe less, later, I get a call saying our coach has resigned. What's interesting about that moment is that our head coach was Lin Dunn, who's now with the Indiana Fever."
Lin Dunn was the Fever's longtime General Manager before moving into a new role as Senior Advisor for Indiana last month.
Bird added, "We eventually ended up hiring Anne Donovan, and we won two years later. So, you know, good luck to Indiana."
Sue’s take on the parallel of her own rookie season and Caitlin’s. 😍
— Jess (@FeverBandwagon) November 3, 2024
“And we won two years later…” ✨ #FeverRising pic.twitter.com/U7P0ns8hnW
Of course, the Fever recently announced their hiring of new head coach Stephanie White a few days after they parted ways with Christie Sides.
So if Bird and Clark's respective WNBA careers continue their interesting parallel to this point, it sounds like the Indiana Fever might be the 2026 WNBA Champions.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.