Sue Bird claims WNBA players wanted to 'shut up and dribble' despite leading 2020 political push
That's what Sue Bird said on a recent episode of her podcast.Yes, Sue Bird.The same woman who was engaged to Megan Rapinoe for more than five years before they announced their split earlier this year now claims that she wanted to "shut up and dribble" instead of diving headfirst into progressive politics in 2020.Former WNBA player Sue Bird has never been shy about expressing left-wing political views, even as she tries to distance herself from her own past comments.
(Getty Images)Bird said the players "would have loved to shut up and dribble because that meant we were talking about basketball." But the "intersectionality of it all," she argued, meant they "kind of had to speak on these things."My goodness.I'm not sure a more ridiculous piece of revisionist history has ever been uttered into a microphone.WNBA SUDDENLY WANTS TO STICK TO BASKETBALL AFTER YEARS OF MAKING POLITICS PART OF THE PRODUCTBird was a WNBPA vice president in 2020.
That was the season that the WNBA put Black Lives Matter on its courts, launched the Justice Movement and created a Social Justice Council.The league and its players repeatedly spoke out on progressive political topics like voting rights, LGBTQ advocacy and gun control.This wasn’t just a handful of players sounding off online, either.The league and union built it into the fabric of the season.Players even went so far as to openly support a Democrat candidate for U.S.
Senate by wearing shirts that said "Vote Warnock" prior to games.Bird now wants people to believe they were forced to do all those things.Here's the problem: Bird's new stance is openly contradicted by...Bird's old stance."Our season was going to have to be played with social justice messages, on our jerseys, on the floor, forefront."That’s what Sue Bird said in an October 2020 interview with NPR.Quite a bit different than "we would have loved to shut up and dribble," huh?Sue Bird now claims WNBA players wanted to "shut up and dribble" in 2020, but her own words fr...