When basketball stars like Sue Bird retire, they may not use their killer crossover or lethal jump shot in the “real world,” but one skill that will continue to serve them well (and which many civilians lack) is teamwork.
“Every athlete has that in them,” Bird said during a main-stage interview at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Tuesday.
During an audience Q&A, an attendee asked the WNBA legend what skills from her playing days she’d found most useful off the court. Bird pointed to a litany of skills that she had developed over a lifetime of playing basketball. That said, one skill—teamwork—stood out more than any other for its ability to help people find common ground.
“Sometimes I joke, ‘If the country was run the way sports teams are, we’d be in a better place,’” Bird said. Athletes “just have an understanding of what it is to interact with each other. Every athlete has this skill set without a doubt.”
Bird, who retired from the WNBA in 2022, was the consummate team player during her standout career. She is the league’s all-time assists leader, with 3,234 over the course of her career.
The overlap of business and sports
Business leaders and elite athletes have always considered themselves cut from the same cloth. Both are high achievers, perform in high-stakes situations in the public eye, and are extraordinarily—even unnervingly—competitive.
For male athletes, becoming businesspeople when their careers end is increasingly common, even expected for some players. Michael Jordan earned a signature brand at Nike that’s now a pop culture and fashion icon. Jordan also bought his hometown NBA team in Charlotte, the Hornets, which he recently sold for $3 billion after buying it for $275 million.
Upon retirement, Bird, too, had her eye on a similar career path. After feeling a little unsure about her qualifications for life off the court, Bird realized the life skills she developed as an athlete would translate to the business world.
“I feel like I woke up when I retired,” Bird said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I can walk into these different rooms, and I can actually have a voice,’ because what I’m bringing to the table is a little bit different because of my sports background.”
In addition to teamwork, Bird added that goal setting and discipline had also served her well in her post-playing days. Bird pointed out that having started playing sports in the first grade—she is now 43—these were among skills she’d honed over a lifetime.
Bird now has several business ventures. She has an aptly named media company Togethxr, which she started alongside soccer legend Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim, and Olympic gold medalist swimmer Simone Manuel. Earlier this year, Bird’s other media company, A Touch More, started alongside her fiancée, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team star Megan Rapinoe, signed a podcasting deal with Vox Media.
However, perhaps her most significant move in business came this spring, when she officially entered the ownership group of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, the team at which she spent her entire 20-year career.
