HARTFORD, Conn. — I remember going to Sue Bird’s house on Long Island right before she came to UConn.
We sat in the kitchen with her mom Nancy, who pointed out the tree Sue used to climb outside the kitchen window, the pictures of little Sue at track meets, the plaque she won for shooting free throws when she was 6 years old.
Nancy was effusive; Sue was a quiet teenager. As the point guard of the No. 1-ranked girls high school team in the country, Christ the King, Bird was well-known in the high school and AAU circles in the New York City area, but in August of 1998 — long before social media existed — maybe not so much beyond that. Even during a trip to Gold’s Gym on the Jericho Turnpike, where Bird worked out the day we visited, the man behind the counter wanted to know why myself and a photographer were there.
