- Do you have those shoes in your closet right now?
- I might.
Lemme see.
- Yes.
- I definitely have a shoe storage.
It's a problem.
I don't have that.
But I do have a pair of these.
These are some of my—
- Oh!
- My faves.
- Yes!
Did we just become best friends?
- I think we just did.
- Welcome to “Full-Bodied,” where, as the wine gets darker,
the questions get deeper.
We are here with one of the best basketball players of all time.
Absolute Hall of Famer whenever she retires.
The style icon, the sneaker god and, to me, one
of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of working with:
Sue Bird, the one, the only. [Cork popping] - Ahhh.
- We're here at Résonance, one of my favorite vineyards,
top five most beautiful vineyards in Oregon.
And they make wines that match the view.
First of all, cheers.
Thank you for doing this.
I wanted to bring this bottle to you
because it is from North Fork of Long Island, which
is your hood.
And, to be honest, I don't really drink a lot of sauvignon blanc.
But I like this.
- Yeah, it's good.
- Right? I would drink this, right?
It's citrusy. It's refreshing. It's
like, if I was by the pool, and it was hot,
I'd be like, “All right,” right?
It's easy on the palate.
I'm just curious: What is in the water in Long Island that
made you as badass as you are?
- I think it's one of those things,
like, if I had an exact answer for you,
I'd be, like, bottling it up.
I'd be putting it in a bottle.
I would get a fancy oxygen thing, and I would sell it.
No, I think all the winning is just about—
yes, you have to be, obviously, talented and skilled
and all these things to get to a certain level.
But I really—it's gonna sound so corny,
but I really have always put the team's success ahead of mine.
And I found that all the success I could ever want
comes when we win.
And now, I'm at a place in my career,
partly because of my age and my experience,
where I can really help other people.
I can really help my teammates.
And I can really help them be their best.
And then I just ride them, to be honest.
I'm like, “Take me to the motherland.
Let's go!”
So I've been lucky to have really good teammates
along the way too.
- You have so many championships and so many Olympic gold
medals.
Which one was the one where you were like, “OK,
I have to dig deep”?
- It's probably—the one that's freshest is we won in 2018.
And it's definitely Seattle, because in the WNBA,
like, similar to the NBA, it's like, it’s hard to win in this league.
Like, some of it's luck.
And the competition is so close that in a series, usually
the best team wins.
But, like, you never know.
- [Announcer:] Bird connects!
It's Sue Bird's building!
- So in 2018, this is, like, probably, to be honest, like,
the best moment of my career.
Like, no joke.
For it to happen when I was 38 is, like, the crazy part.
But we played Phoenix in the semis.
It was a five-game series, and it was Game 5.
I ended up scoring, like, 14 or so points in the final five
or six minutes.
- [Announcer:] Bird heaves!
- [Bird:] And it—
- [Frye:] Dang!
- Yeah, it was, like, a close game, and it kinda sealed the game.
- [Announcer:] Sue Bird!
It is her night!
- So that was the one where, like, you talk about digging deep—
- Yeah. - There was drama.
You know, it was Game 5.
We've just, like, you know, went to war with them for four games.
And now this is the fifth game.
Diana Taurasi has never lost, literally never lost
in an elimination game.
So it's like, all this stuff is swirling.
I had broken my nose the game before.
There was just, like, a lot going on.
So that one, that one sticks out.
- Just seeing the pedigree of basketball that you have,
right, and the winningest—
like, I respect winning more than anything else
because I understand how hard it is.
We've both seen players and people
come where you go, “You have everything. Everything!”
Like, “You can shoot. You can jump. You're smart.”
And it's just like their motivation for being great
is, like, an outboard motor on a big yacht of talent, right?
- Yeah. [Laughing]
- This second one, it is a white Burgundy.
And so this is a Premier cru, which is, like,
higher level of wine.
And to be from Burgundy, right, is to be elite
and to be the best.
And why it's elite is not only where it's from,
but how they make it and how they're more hands-off.
And they allow their wine—
and the simplicities of it take over.
There's only a few, couple of people that can do Burgundies.
- Listen, if you want greatness, you gotta work for it, OK?
[Cork popping] - Oh, there we go.
That's the best sound in the world.
- Got it.
- So while you're pouring that—
- Whew, that was close.
- I would like to know two things.
No. 1, who are the top, let's
say, three to five players you've ever played against?
And then who are your top three to five players
you love watching?
- OK.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
Now, you taste the difference between the other one
and this one?
- Yeah, definitely.
If it was gross, I would tell you.
- Yeah, please, please tell me. - They’re really good.
- If it's gross—
- They’re really good.
- Please tell me.
Then it's somebody else's fault.
- Best players I’ve played against—
Diana Taurasi, for sure.
- OK.
- Lauren Jackson.
- OK.
- Breanna Stewart.
I'm definitely biased.
Those three are my teammates.
- Yeah.
- So I had front-row seats to the greatness.
The next two, I would go...
dang.
So I'm gonna pick guards, because, playing against.
So every time I got switched in some capacity
on to Sheryl Swoopes, lowkey, I was like, “Ohhh, fuck.”
- Oh, yeah.
- Can we curse on this?
- You were like, “Bring that help,” right? - Yeah.
- You were like, “What side? What side?”
- I was like, “Ohhh, crap.”
And then actually, the fifth player,
I could go Lindsay Whalen, give some love to another point
guard. - Yep.
- But I'm actually gonna go Cynthia Cooper, just because,
again—
- Wow.
- She only played in the league when
I was in the league for, like, 10 games. - Right.
- She had retired, and she came back for this one year.
It happened to be my second year in the league.
And she only got to, like— I don't remember exactly—
10, 15 games.
But I was one of the, we were one of the games that we played.
And so it was, it was amazing to play against a legend, you know?
She had started the league.
Raise the roof, that was her thing.
- What about on the men's side?
- Stephon Marbury.
- Yeah, Steph.
- He was exciting to watch.
- He was exciting to be a teammate.
- Yeah.
Jimmer Fredette. Does he count?
- Jimmer!
Yes!
- I mean, he's fun to watch cuz he's
the kinda guy where you're like,
“Oh, this guy's been dropping 40 in college?”
Like, “Let's see what he's about.”
That kind of—you know?
- We're gonna take a hard left, OK? - OK.
- So when did you become addicted to sneakers?
This is actually an intervention.
- I feel like the world should know
I do have it under control.
I'm acknowledging the addiction, but—
no, I bet it's a similar story.
I'm sure you have a ton of sneakers
just from, like, being an athlete.
You just get a bunch of stuff.
I, like, literally woke up one day, and I was like, “Oh, wow. I
have a collection.”
But it wasn’t—I wasn't, like, going out of my way to, like, stand on the line
somewhere.
- Right, right, right.
- I wasn't hitting my Nike rep constantly.
It was just like, they've done a good job
of getting us the good stuff.
And now, it's, like, kind of part of our culture.
- Right. - It wasn't when you think about it.
It wasn't, especially for a woman.
It wasn't, like, five years ago.
So I always joke, I've been, like, waiting for the day—
- Yeah.
- For sneakers to be appropriate to wear to, like,
a black-tie event.
I've been waiting for this day.
- See, my kick game is lowkey only good
because I was in the league so long, all of Nike
felt bad for me.
And when I moved to Portland, I know where they all live, so I
bug 'em. Shoutout, Ted.
And so, you know, for me—
- You're at the employee store like—
- I'm always like, “Hey”—yeah, oh,
they’re like, “Channing, dammit!
Hide the 18s.”
So there's only so many cool shoes you can get in a size 18.
So, you know, I've been kinda hampered.
Wait till you see the kicks I got on right now.
Could you guess what they are?
- Maybe not-so-fresh pair of Air Force 1s.
That would be my guess.
- No.
No, here, watch these bad boys.
Look, these are a fresh pair of Croc Air Force 1s.
- [Laughing] Oh, Croc—hey, got the UGG slippers.
- Do you?
OK!
Listen, sometimes, you gotta let the big dogs breathe now.
Look—
- Yeah, cozy. Gotta be cozy.
- What is it about sneakers that you love?
And what is it, like, about your favorite pair that you love?
Is it the exclusivity?
Is it the colorway?
Is it the story?
What is that?
- So, like, my favorite pairs are more the story.
One of my all-time favorite pairs,
and I have, like, my originals—
- Right.
- Well, actually, no, that's not entirely true.
I don't have, like, the O-O-OG version.
I have, like, when it came out the second time.
It's since come out, like, three and four times.
The Andre Agassis. They're like the—
- Yes!
Oh, the tennis joints!
- Air [Tech] Challenges. Yeah, with the pink on the side.
I remember getting those in, like, elementary school.
When they came out again and I could get them as an adult,
those are the same ones I still have.
And so, like, those are the ones that I hold on to tight.
- Growing up in Arizona, like, remember when Charles Barkley came out
with the CB 34s with the first air bubble?
- Those are my favorite— those are, like, one of my first
and one of my favorite basketball shoes.
- Yes!
- Like, obsessed.
- So I could not—
I was crying to my dad. Like, “Dad,
please let me get these shoes.”
He was like, “Dude.”
So in sixth grade, I was 6'2" wearing, like—
- Damn.
- You know—how old are you in sixth grade, 12?
Wearing a size 13, 14 shoe in Chuck Taylors.
- That's crazy.
- But you know Chucks run big, right?
- Yeah.
- So, like, I was wearing a 14 because my dad was like, “Well,
you're gonna grow into 'em.” - “You’re gonna grow into ‘em.”
- So imagine—
- Aw.
- Yeah!
- Damn.
- I was getting roasted—
- Yeah, I bet.
- Roasted at school back in the '90s, with my big clippy
cloppy flippers.
But, man, it's just like, sneakers are evolving.
And they're awesome, and they have these stories.
But just those original shoes that you fell in love with
are unreal.
- Yeah.
So it's funny you say that, because my favorite,
by far, like, all-time favorite basketball shoe
is the original Uptempos.
Like—
- Oh!
- And about, I dunno, a year ago or so,
I was like, “Let me work out in these.”
Like, these are some of my favorite shoes.
Like, lemme go work out.
Oh, I had to take ‘em off in, like, 20 minutes.
I was like, “These are unwearable.”
I feel like our feet are now a little, a little snobby.
We're very—
- Do you have those shoes in your closet right now?
- I might.
Lemme see.
- Yes.
- I don't know.
Yeah, I definitely have a shoe storage.
It's a problem.
- Yeah, well, I got wine storage— - I don’t know if I have ‘em here.
- So it's a problem, too.
- Let me see what I can break out, though.
All right, I don't, I don’t have that. But I do have a pair of these.
These are some of my—
- Oh!
- My faves.
- Yes!
I hooped in those my senior year in college.
This is before I tell— so nobody tell Bron.
Nobody show Bron.
But I literally loved playing in those.
I thought I could jump—it actually helped me get drafted.
You know, you gotta fake it to make it sometimes.
- Yep. They're so comfortable
- Any shoe with a strap is perfect.
- Same! - Any shoe with a strap is perfect.
- Same.
- Oh, my goodness. Did we just become best friends?
- I think we just did.
- We can open up these red bottles now.
And so why we picked this—obviously
Ponzi has been around Portland and obviously
Willamette Valley for a long time.
And the winery owners are women, powerful women.
- Yeah, I saw that.
- Wonderful, awesome, awesome people.
And so they are just doing things together
where they are supporting human rights
and making sure that everyone is gonna be treated equally.
I will say this: You have done so much for not
only inside the WNBA and using your platform,
but just all walks of life.
I would consider you a leader.
I would consider you one of the forefront of that.
And that is a big responsibility.
So how do you take that?
How did that come about?
- I have this, like, interesting career just because I've
been playing for so long.
So when I entered the league, the league was different.
The world was different. Society was different. All that stuff.
- Oh, yeah.
- So when I first got into the league,
and really, most of my career—like,
10-plus years—it just— we had this vibe of like,
“Be thankful that you can even play.”
- Right. - You know, “Don't really push the limits.
Don't speak on these things.”
It wasn't that somebody told me not to do it.
It was just, like, a vibe.
I kind of, like, understood what was happening.
And so I didn't.
- Very oppressive vibe?
- Yeah.
- You can say that.
- I think a combination of things—one,
just getting older, more experience,
getting more confident in, like, who you are.
A lot of that has to do with when I came out.
That's a big part of, like, saying who you are. - Right.
- It just, it gives you this whole other confidence.
So some of it's just, like, natural progression of life.
Some of it is meeting Megan.
And I think what you see now is just someone who feels like—
I don't regret the early parts of my career. In some ways,
I don't know that I was ready.
There are, you know, things that need to be said.
And I have a lot of the experience that I can draw on.
And I just don't wanna miss another moment, right?
Like, I feel like I missed a lot of opportunities in the past,
so I just don't wanna miss them anymore.
And that's kind of, I think, what you see now from me.
- What is something that the men can do to uplift you guys,
and to, like, be hand in hand?
- These are, like, kind of tough questions.
I don't know that I have exact answers.
I would say—I do think language is important.
It's not just how we're empowering our daughters,
which we should. - Yeah.
- It's not just how we're encouraging our daughters,
which we should.
It's also what we're teaching our sons. - Right, right.
- Because those are gonna be the next generation.
It's like, you have to come from a place of willing to learn
and willing to, like, maybe at times, in that growth
and in that—
- Evolution?
- Yeah, evolution, and, like, the more knowledge
you gain. Also, kind of understanding
maybe the privilege you've had, or maybe
the things you've said in the past that weren't, you know, on the up
and up and just kind of, like, acknowledging that. Not getting
defensive, but just acknowledging it
and then, like, fixing it and moving on.
It's kind of like when you tell a white person, “You
had privilege,” for some reason, it's like
this reaction of like, “No, I worked hard,”
you know what I mean?
- Yes.
- And it's like, “Yeah, no—”
- Oh, yeah.
I live in Portland, trust me.
- Yeah.
[Laughing] But it's like, “Yeah, you did work hard.
I didn't say you didn't work hard.
But you had—you have privilege.
Like, you had a head start.” - Yeah, yeah.
- It's a similar—it's similar.
It's not the same.
I'm not comparing in that way, but, like, the lesson
is similar.
And then I think what you said about the media is so crucial.
- Yeah.
- Giving women the airtime and not just, like,
showing the highlight.
But I hope we get to a point in our storytelling
where we're, like, acknowledging the storylines
in women's sports. - Yeah.
- And I think for women's sports, we never tap into those,
so people never get invested the way they are in men's sports.
It's like a small part of it, but it matters.
- On that, on the youth of the women of the WNBA,
where do you see it evolving in the next five years, 10 years,
20 years?
Are you gonna be—and I'm asking you personally, what is
that next goal?
Would you wanna be an owner?
Would you wanna be a coach?
- I don't know. That's the short answer.
But—
- That’s aight.
- It's starting to become a little more clear.
I do know that I wanna be—
I'm always gonna be involved in women's sports.
So I'm sure you've heard of Paige Bueckers.
She plays at Connecticut.
- Yeah. Oh, yeah.
- She's a freshman.
She's—
- Good gracious almighty.
- Yeah, insanely good.
Like, you can't deny it.
The best thing about her and, like, her generation—
so there's a bunch of players.
Azzi Fudd's another one. Hailey Van Lith.
I mentioned Caitlin Clark.
Like, they have these followings right now.
I'm just saying like, you, Channing Frye,
a former NBA player who's now retired, knows her name.
And your kids—
- Oh, for sure.
I've watched a couple of games.
She's a walking bucket.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so people your kids' age, or—
there's gonna be a generation of people
that grow up with Paige.
And so when they become the 24-, 25-year-old person
who can go out and buy a ticket, who has a family,
Paige is gonna be a household name already.
Like, it's starting earlier.
So in five years, I'm really excited for where
women's basketball could be because that era of player,
they already have a fanbase.
I had like, the UConn fanbase, but it wasn't quite the same.
She's going to take that with her for the next four years
and beyond.
Like I said, I don't know exactly how it's going to look.
- Right. Right.
- But I can't imagine I'm not involved in some way, shape
or form.
Like, ownership—I think I'd be more likely to get
involved on the ownership side than I would the coaching side.
I feel like coaching's kind of hard.
- Oof.
No, thank you. No, thank you.
- And I feel like I already lived this life.
I don't know if I want to live it again. You know what I mean?
- We have a game, right?
And this—we'll end on this.
- OK.
- So since you have nothing else to do tonight,
you've got to take a sip for every time
you get it wrong, OK?
Here we go.
- I'm in.
- Right?
So it's called Fill In the Grape, OK?
So we have five categories with a question in each.
You're going to choose your categories,
and then you have to say the answer.
- OK.
- So it's Huskies in the W, Kicks, History Books, WNBA Assists
or Megan.
- I'll go Huskies in the W.
- Name five UConn players who play in the Western Conference.
- Breanna Stewart and Katie Lou Samuelson.
- OK.
- Diana Taurasi, Moriah Jefferson, Crystal Dangerfield.
Boom!
- You kicked my butt on that one.
- History Books sounds like a wild card,
so I'll take History Books.
- Can you name two NBA players—there's
only two NBA players who, just like you, have won titles
in three different decades.
- I feel like LeBron has to be—
- Nope.
- No?
- No, uh huh.
- Tim Duncan?
- Yeah.
Now, he is a big man.
I think he went to Georgia Tech.
Somebody in my ear, tell me.
- He went to Georgia Tech?
- Very outgoing. It was John Salley.
- Oh, John Salley.
The Best Damn—
- That's a name.
- The Best Damn Sports Show.
- Yes!
- How am I going to mess that up?
OK, we'll go Kicks.
- What sneakers did you wear when you won your first championship
in 2004?
- Oh, the 2K4s, Huaraches.
- I knew.
I could have said that.
Everybody was playing in those!
- Everybody.
- Before you broke the record in 2017,
who was the WNBA all-time assist leader?
- Oh, Ticha Penicheiro.
- Ah, that's so easy.
Come on, guys!
- Yeah, these are easy.
You guys are lobbing them in.
Give me the Megan one.
- OK.
In 2019, against what team or country did Megan convert
two penalty kicks in round of 16 to help the U.S. secure a win?
- Ah, see? Umm, France?
- Here we go, gotcha.
Take a little sippy sippy.
- Megan!
- [Laughing]
- You can phone a friend.
Ask her. See if she remembers.
- I think she's—Megan!
Maybe Sweden?
- OK, take one more sip.
- I don't know—
Germany?
I have no idea who they played.
- Ooh, take one more sip.
You gonna be lit, girl.
What you doing?
It's Tuesday!
Y'all watching The Voice?
It was Spain.
- Spain.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Aw, I told you.
Damn it.
- Yeah, I never would have gotten it.
- Oh well.
Thank you for being a leader.
Thank you for taking the time.
Thank you for being awesome.
- Thank you so much for having me.
I had a good time.
- Another episode of “Full-Bodied.”This has been great. Sue Bird.