Despite sharing the same last name, Sue Bird and Larry Bird don’t have any relation to each other. However, Sue revealed a lie she used to spread in her youth while on Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s ‘Thanalysis Show’.
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Sue used her last name to her advantage during her elementary years. Going to the extent of lying to make people believe she was related to the Celtics legend. She said,
“When I was in kindergarten, I used to lie and tell people he was my uncle all the time.”
This came about when Thanasis opened the show by asking the question that has circulated throughout the internet. It’s quite impressive that Sue was able to convince people that the ‘Larry Legend’ was her uncle on multiple occasions as it surely opened up a can of worms i.e. a slew of questions upon her ‘confirming’ this relation.
Although she addressed the question with Thanasis, it wasn’t the first time where she set the record straight.
In 2006, WNBA.com interviewed Sue and asked about her relation to Larry. She said,
“Totally. Since I’ve been five, people asked me if we’re related. It is usually the third question in the line of questions. What’s your name? Sue Bird. Oh, what do you do? I play basketball. Are you related to Larry Bird? That’s how it goes. I guess it could be worse, though, since he is a legend and all.”
Sue didn’t take the questions to heart too much since Larry was one of the greatest NBA players ever. Besides, she blazed her own trail in the WNBA and set aside any notion that she made to where she did off the back of hype caused by her last name.
The 5-foot-9 guard was a 13-time All-Star and 8-time All-WNBA Team member. She won four WNBA championships in her career, all with the Seattle Storm.
She cemented herself as an integral figure in women’s basketball. One can’t tell the history of the sport without mentioning Sue Bird.
Sue revealed the story to Larry
Sue had the opportunity to speak with Larry and share the story about her fabricated relationship with the three-time NBA champion.
Larry and Sue participated in a March Madness commercial together in 2022. The Storm legend revealed in an interview with Business Insider she used the moment to enlighten the 12-time NBA All-Star about her made-up stories. She said,
“So I told the story and I was like, ‘Yeah, so you’ve been an honorary member of my family, you just didn’t know it,'” Bird recalled. “And he was was like, ‘I’m honored. That’s an honor.’ I was like, ‘Thanks, Larry.'”
Both players are pioneers in their respective sports. Bird entered the NBA in a period where the league was struggling financially and helped turn it around. The globalization of the NBA that was led by Michael Jordan wouldn’t have been possible without the foundation that was set by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s.
Additionally, Sue entered the WNBA near the genesis of the league and became a face the league built around. As a result, the two may not be related by blood, but they are related through the historic impact that they’ve had on basketball.
