How WNBA Icons Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles Changed the Game

Nine combined Olympic gold medals. Six WNBA championships. Twenty-one All-Star appearances. One WNBA MVP. Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles, two of the most decorated and prolific basketball players in WNBA history—and both among Adweek’s 2022 Most Powerful Women in Sports honorees—each said goodbye to their professional careers a few months ago, choosing to retire at the top of their respective games.

“What makes myself and Syl interesting right now is we’re really one of the first crop of players that have had these lengthy, lengthy careers,” said Bird, noting the WNBA is only in its 26th season. “We’ve been in people’s homes, on their TV sets, at the Olympics for [more than] 15 years, and that’s not even including college, when both of us were household names.”

However, despite their career similarities­—both credit Nike as an early supporter and are represented by Lindsay Kagawa Colas at powerhouse agency Wasserman—their opportunities and experience off the basketball court have been wildly divergent. Only one of them has been a fixture in brand spots for 20 years, earned a plethora of media coverage and been given every future opportunity to continue as an industry mainstay. Meanwhile, the other is preparing for a second act in funerary arts.

Bird, 42, the first overall draft pick in 2002, hung up her sneakers after 18 seasons and 20 years with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, leading her team deep into one last playoff run. No. 10 is a four-time WNBA champion, the league’s all-time assist leader, a 13-time All-Star and a five-time Olympic gold medalist. She has partnerships with major brands like Nike, American Express, CarMax and Capital One. The New York native is a part-owner of the NWSL’s Gotham FC, and founded media and commerce company Togethxr with three other elite athletes, which works to amplify the voices of women athletes.

Arguably one of the best players to ever change the game, Fowles doesn’t have the top-tier deals that Bird does. At 37, the second overall 2008 draft pick retired after an elite career with the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx. The Miami native is a WNBA MVP, four-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and four-time Olympic gold medalist. She’s the league’s greatest rebounder of all time and the career leader in field goal percentage. Yet she’s spending post-retirement far away from sports, where she’s studying mortuary science. 

“The world we live in, the world that the WNBA is trying to thrive in, doesn’t really appreciate [and value] the types of people that are playing in the league,” said Bird. “[It] doesn’t appreciate people of color, doesn’t appreciate the LGBT community. When you look at Syl, a Black woman in this world who stands at 6’6”, no one’s looking at her and seeing her talent.”

‘Driven’ to succeed

Fowles was raised in the Victory Homes Projects in Miami-Dade County, which she believes shaped her…