'Sue Bird: In the Clutch' Director Sarah Dowland, basketball star Sue Bird and producer Emily Chapman stop by The Hollywood Reporter's Park City studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows Bird's legendary 21-year professional career, which includes winning five Olympic gold medals, four WNBA championships and more. Bird tells THR the moment she decided it was time for her to retire and what it was like filming this documentary.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00 Jay Ellis and Aaron Bergman, they have their production company, Black Bar Mitzvah,
00:03 and it was a conversation between those two and a good friend of mine, Ryan Rilko,
00:08 who also grew up with Aaron.
00:09 And they went to Ryan, they were like, "Hey, we know you're good friends with Sue.
00:13 What do you think?"
00:14 They saw something in my story, both from the longevity aspect of it,
00:18 just how long it was, how successful it was,
00:20 but also that I was probably close to retiring.
00:23 And then Ryan came to me and was like, "Hey, I got a friend, he has a production company.
00:27 Would you take a meeting?"
00:28 And for me, it was the trust aspect of having a friend be the one to vouch for it.
00:34 And then once they presented, it was a no-brainer.
00:37 Well, it was interesting.
00:41 As an athlete, and I actually don't know if this is specific to women or not,
00:46 but it's something about turning 30.
00:47 I've been getting asked about retirement, literally, at that point for 10 years.
00:51 So somebody thinking I might retire was not a new concept for me.
00:55 I think the difference was I was now 40 years old.
00:59 I had just turned 40.
01:00 And it is, you know, that they say you can't beat father time.
01:04 I always joked I was just trying to tie him anyways.
01:06 But it's true, at some point, you're going to hang him up.
01:09 So it wasn't, thank God, it wasn't that my play had declined or that I didn't,
01:14 you know, I looked 40 out there.
01:16 I think it was just, "Okay, she's 40 now.
01:19 We had just won a championship.
01:21 There was an Olympic year coming since it got moved to 2021."
01:25 So I think it just, "Okay, if she's thinking about it, now might be the time."
01:29 It was just, like I said, a little bit of an inkling.
01:31 When you're an athlete, a professional athlete,
01:33 it's literally something you've likely been doing since you could barely walk,
01:38 you know?
01:39 For me, I started playing basketball at, like, 5, 6 years old.
01:42 I started joining teams shortly thereafter.
01:44 So to let go of something that you've been doing your entire life,
01:49 not only that, when you become a professional athlete,
01:51 it's also embedded in your identity.
01:52 So you're not just letting go of a sport, you're letting go of who you are
01:55 and how people see you.
01:57 So I could see how there's a mental aspect, a physical aspect.
02:00 So maybe the physical has gone a little bit or declined a little bit.
02:04 So you're like, "I'm ready to retire," but mentally, you're not ready yet.
02:07 "Okay, I'm unretiring," and so on and so forth.
02:10 I could see how it's a joke goal.
02:12 And that's also why I wanted to be 100% sure when I announced my retirement.
02:18 I didn't want to have to have that go back and forth.
02:21 - It seems like now I'm thinking about it, almost bringing on board the documentary
02:25 team could help you almost, like, keep to your decisions, too,
02:29 and, like, keep you honest and, like, kind of work it out as well in real time.
02:33 - Yeah.
02:34 We did start 2021, but I was fairly upfront.
02:37 Like, this could be, but it's a big question mark.
02:41 So then when I decided to come back for the 2022 season, which ended up being my
02:45 last season, I think we're all on the same page in that it wasn't, like, a shock.
02:49 Everyone kind of knew that it was possible, but it did mean we had to film
02:53 for another year.
02:53 - Had you known Jay before?
02:56 - No.
02:57 That was the first time I was meeting him.
02:58 - Did you have any, like, questions for him, or was there, like, an internal test
03:01 he had to pass to…
03:03 - No.
03:04 I'm like, "I knew who Jay was."
03:05 - He didn't know who you were.
03:07 - I hadn't met him, but I knew who he was.
03:08 - Had you seen him play basketball?
03:09 - No, I hadn't.
03:10 That actually should have been the test.
03:12 - Have you?
03:13 - I should have been like, "Listen, let me see his free throw, and then we'll go
03:15 from there."
03:16 But I think for me, it's like a lot of what was required of me, outside of the
03:21 vulnerable aspect, is not that different from what I've done through the course of
03:25 my career.
03:26 Cameras in my face, "Hey, can we mic you for this game?
03:28 Hey, can we come watch you get ready for a game?"
03:30 Even those types of intimate moments, I'd have filmed before, albeit not for just a
03:35 doc on myself.
03:36 So it wasn't…
03:37 I didn't…there was no test they had to pass.
03:38 I kind of knew what I was getting into.
03:40 I think my career was…ended up being a little bit of a blueprint for younger
03:44 players, just because I am…I'm not like the OG generation, like the first, first,
03:50 first, but I'm like right there.
03:52 And so I was able, I think, to kind of set a standard.
03:55 Now, players will play into their 40s, and it'll feel normal, you know?
03:59 And I think what I'm seeing now, and what I'd like to start in 2024, is building a
04:04 business life similar to my basketball career, in that I can be one of the first
04:09 retired players to start to use their career as leverage, as a platform to start
04:14 other businesses while continuing to give back and kind of pave ways for other
04:19 athletes that are coming behind me.
04:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]