SEATTLE — At one point Sunday, after yet another overflowing tribute to Sue Bird, co-host Macklemore joked about the growing length of her jersey retirement ceremony. But then he shrugged.
"It happens when people love the person they're celebrating, " he said.
Above all else, the 2-hour-and-50-minute ceremony at Climate Pledge Arena — about 50 minutes longer than the game that preceded it, a 71-65 Storm loss to the Washington Mystics — was a monument of love. The love that virtually everyone brought up to speak has for Bird and felt compelled to detail, and, as Bird expressed in her own expansive, emotional and at times hilarious hour-and-32-minute speech, the love she has for them.
