Basketball legend Sue Bird — four-time WNBA champion, five-time Olympic gold medalist, and Naismith Hall of Famer — is set to receive an honor no other human has held before. Under a bill approved by the Connecticut legislature and now headed to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk, she will share the state bird designation with the American robin every March starting next year.
The measure is a tribute to Bird’s iconic surname and her towering legacy in the Constitution State, where she starred as the University of Connecticut’s point guard from 1998 to 2002. She led the Huskies to two national titles, including an undefeated championship season in her senior year, before embarking on a 19-year professional career with the Seattle Storm. She retired in 2022 as the WNBA’s all-time leader in assists, starts, and minutes played, and was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame last year.
“I think it’s a great honor,” Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter told reporters. “When this bill is adopted, if the governor signs it, the month of March we will have two state birds.”
The bird-naming provision occupied just a few lines inside a 111-page omnibus bill that included a wide range of unrelated matters. The legislation received final approval Wednesday. It states that “the American robin, Turdus migratorius, shall be the state bird, provided in the month of March of each year, the American robin and Suzanne Brigit Bird, also known as Sue Bird, shall be the state birds.”
Lamont is expected to sign the bill into law. The governor has frequently touted Connecticut as the basketball capital of the world, a claim buoyed by the sustained dominance of UConn’s women’s and men’s basketball programs.
Bird, a native of Syosset, New York, on Long Island, posted news of the designation on her social media accounts. “What an honor,” said a post from the Instagram account for her “Bird’s Eye View” podcast, which featured a photo of Bird from her playing days at UConn. Messages to Bird and her representatives were not immediately returned Thursday, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the story.