Dan Hughes flew in for the culmination. He saw no other choice. For weeks, he shifted his schedule around, moving appointments and canceling a visit from a son who’s in the Air Force, then jetting to Texas to do the visiting himself. He booked another flight to Sea-Tac Airport and a downtown hotel, then secured the most impossible ticket in town.
He came, like so many others, to celebrate Sue Bird.
Hughes coached Bird and coached against her and both experiences left equal-but-opposite impressions. While helming the San Antonio Silver Stars, he once called a late timeout and begged every player in the huddle to follow one simple rule. Don’t leave Sue. They did. She won. “Almost killed me,” Hughes says. “Didn’t sleep for a week.” While coaching the Storm, he got a bird’s-eye view when his point guard tipped one victory with 14 fourth-quarter points. Best sleep he had in years.
