Sue Bird: Fans Don’t Watch WNBA Because Players are ‘Black, Gay, Tall’

WNBA superstar Sue Bird with girlfriend and soccer icon Megan Rapinoe (Image source: Instagram – @suebird10)

Terry Shropshire – WNBA legend Sue Bird says the beleaguered league has always had trouble attracting mainstream viewers because most of the women are “tall, Black, gay.”

WNBA superstar Sue Bird with girlfriend and soccer icon Megan Rapinoe (Image source: Instagram – @suebird10)

WNBA legend Sue Bird says the beleaguered league has always had trouble attracting mainstream viewers because most of the women are “tall, Black, gay.”

“To be completely blunt, but also kind of simple, soccer players generally are cute little White girls. And I think basketball players, we’re all shapes and sizes,” said Bird, who just won her fourth championship with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. “It’s 70 [to] 80 percent Black women, a lot of gay women. We’re tall; we’re big. And I think there’s just maybe this intimidation factor with that. People are quick to talk about it, judge it, put it down. And soccer, you just don’t see that just based on how they look.”

Bird, 40, is in a relationship with girlfriend Megan Rapinoe, the MVP of the U. S. Women’s National Soccer Team who also just came off a World Cup championship win this past summer. Bird was echoing Rapinoe’s dismay at the WNBA’s historic troubles to grow its fanbase, which is far smaller than that of women’s soccer.

Bird and Rapinoe are staunch supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and were vocal about trying to get justice for Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Flip the page to see what Bird told CNN about her beloved WNBA.

“To be completely blunt, but also kind of simple, soccer players generally are cute little White girls. And I think basketball players, we’re all shapes and sizes,” said Bird, who just won her fourth championship with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. “It’s 70 [to] 80 percent Black women, a lot of gay women. We’re tall; we’re big. And I think there’s just maybe this intimidation factor with that. People are quick to talk about it, judge it, put it down. And soccer, you just don’t see that just based on how they look.”

Bird, 40, is in a relationship with girlfriend Megan Rapinoe, the MVP of the U. S. Women’s National Soccer Team who also just came off a World Cup championship win this past summer. Bird was echoing Rapinoe’s dismay at the WNBA’s historic troubles to grow its fanbase, which is far smaller than that of women’s soccer.

Bird and Rapinoe are staunch supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and were vocal about trying to get justice for Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bird admits that she used to shy away or avoid speaking about sociopolitical issues in order to not create waves. But she and Rapinoe feel emboldened in 2020 to talk about things outside of basketball and soccer.

“The problem is not the marketing, per se. The problem is how society and how the outside world is willing to accept the cute girl next door, but not willing to accept, or embrace, or not judge these basketball players who are tall, Black, gay,” Bird told CNN.

“We [in the WNBA] are representing all that we are. We’re representing every day the values that we want to push forward in our world,” she added. “And I feel like you can go to bed at night and sleep well knowing you’re being true to yourself, and that’s more important than anything.”

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Sue Bird: Fans don’t watch WNBA because players are ‘Black, gay, tall’

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