NEW YORK — Sue Bird is giving one other help to USA Basketball, turning into the managing director of the ladies’s nationwide group.
The five-time Olympic champion was named to the newly created place Thursday, and it marks a significant change in the best way the group creates its roster and training employees.
“I performed for USA Basketball for therefore lengthy and at all times actually loved my time with them,” Bird informed The Related Press. “I really like representing my nation. I really like being aggressive on that stage. To have that chance to do it in a distinct position is thrilling.”
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Earlier than the change, a committee made these selections, however now in a transfer just like what the U.S. males’s nationwide group does, Bird would be the one answerable for placing issues collectively. Grant Hill has the identical position on the boys’s facet.
“We’re actually, actually enthusiastic about Sue for therefore many causes,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley mentioned. “Her pedigree and standing within the sport is so robust. Not simply in ladies’s basketball, however all of sport. She’s an amazing chief, and we’re very excited that she took this on for us.”
The lads’s group has had a managing director for 20 years with Jerry Colangelo serving in that spot from 2005 to 2021 earlier than Hill took over.
“She’s had 5 Olympic gold medals herself and understands what’s concerned,” Tooley mentioned. “Having the managing director place makes it simpler to work with the employees for long-term imaginative and prescient of this system. It is onerous to try this with a committee that comes and goes and will get collectively a handful of instances.”
Tooley mentioned Bird’s time period will likely be for 4 years, the identical because the Olympic cycle.
The change to this construction has been within the works for just a few years, properly earlier than the choice to not choose Caitlin Clark for the 2024 Paris Video games group that left some folks upset.
“Discussions occurred after the ’21 Olympics, and Sue served on the board final quad,” Tooley mentioned. “We obtained in discussions in regards to the managing director position, and we sat together with her some time and he or she gave it quite a lot of consideration and thought. It is an unlimited duty.”
Bird mentioned she is used to the stress of USA Basketball the place it is principally win a gold medal or bust. The Individuals have received eight straight, together with on the Paris Video games.
“It is a completely different kind of stress,” she mentioned. “I am hoping to deliver all that I realized as a participant, all my expertise, all my understanding. The entire purpose is to win a gold medal, and it feels at instances that is the one possibility. … I do know what it is prefer to be a participant, know what it is like as a participant to construct groups and have groups come collectively and see what clicks.”
Earlier than the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the Individuals will play within the FIBA World Cup in Germany subsequent yr. The primary qualifying occasion will happen in November. Apart from determining what gamers will likely be on that group, Bird must determine who will likely be teaching the squad. There isn’t any clear-cut selection proper now.
“In fact I’ve began to consider it, jotting some names down right here and there,” Bird mentioned. “It is the primary precedence unquestionably. There are such a lot of certified coaches in faculty and the WNBA.”
Bird mentioned she does not have a selected time-frame to have a coach in place.