From UConn to the Rio Olympics, All Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi Do Is Win

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi may be the best point guard and shooting guard, respectively, in U.S. women's basketball history. This month at the Rio Olympics, they are seeking their fourth gold medals. They have also won championships as teammates at the University of Connecticut and on a professional team in Russia. Each has multiple WNBA titles, too.

All of that winning and time together over the past 15 years has made the two close friends. And yet, it hasn't diminished their need to argue—about everything.

"They're always the two smartest guys on the floor," said Team USA coach Geno Auriemma, who also coached Bird and Taurasi at UConn. "The only time they get in trouble is when they argue with each other who's smarter, because neither of them have ever been wrong in their lives. Ever. Ever. If you ever catch Sue or D [Taurasi] going, 'Listen, I was wrong,' get it on tape, because it'll be the first time ever."

Bird and Taurasi have different playing styles: Bird is in control on the floor and looks to get her teammates involved, while Taurasi is flashier, faster, and more aggressive. Apparently, the same contrast applies to their arguing styles.

"Diana will beat you over the head with her opinion," said UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, who recruited Bird and Taurasi. "She'll just argue for argument's sake. The things she doesn't even believe to be true, she'll get you to be in a screaming match with her just because she likes to argue."

Bird is more cerebral. "She's got a great memory," Dailey said. "She'll remember every situation or she'll look it up and she will argue her case in a much more civil, calm way and have proof to back it up, where Diana might just say that it's true because she says it."

Bird and Taurasi's complementary relationship goes back to their days as college teammates. Curiously enough, neither seemed destined for UConn.

Bird grew up in Long Island as part of a family that took schoolwork seriously. Her father is a cardiologist, her mother is a nurse, and her older sister graduated from Brown. By the time Bird was a senior at Christ the King High School in Queens, New York, she was one of the nation's best players, but UConn's coaches thought she might head to Stanford, Vanderbilt, or another program with a superior academic reputation.

Instead, Bird signed with the Huskies. After sustaining a season-ending knee injury eight games into her freshman year, she recovered in time to lead UConn to its second national title in 2000.

That year, Taurasi was a high-school senior in Glendale, California, and surprised most observers when she committed to UConn. They had assumed she would remain close to home.

Dailey remembers picking up Taurasi and her mother, Lily, at the airport for a recruiting visit. Lily wasn't too impressed with Connecticut.

"She was like, 'What's the matter? There's no traffic,'" Dailey said. "She was used to [Los Angeles]. We're like, 'That's a good thing, Lily.' She's like, 'There's no light. It's dark.' I was like, 'It's nighttime.' She was trying to find any reason for Diana not to come here because it was far."

Still, Auriemma and Dailey kept at it. Dailey had known Taurasi was special since she saw her score a game-winning basket as a high school freshman during a tournament in Santa Barbara. Auriemma and Taurasi's father, Mario, were both born in Italy, so they bonded over their shared heritage. Still, Dailey was surprised to receive a call from Taurasi during her senior year.

"Out of the clear blue one day, she was like, 'Well, I'm gonna commit,'" Dailey said. "I was like, 'What? What?' She's like, 'Yeah, I think I'm gonna come there.' As a coach and recruiter, you're like, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, did she just say that?' She did, and the rest was kind of history."

Taurasi's college career didn't get off to an ideal start. During the 2001 Final Four, she went 1-for-15 and missed all 11 three-point attempts in a 90-75 loss to Notre Dame. It was the only blip in an otherwise remarkable run. The next year, when Bird was a senior and Taurasi was a sophomore, UConn went 39-0 and won the first of three consecutive national championships.

The friendship between the starting guards was strong from the start.

"We've now been friends for a really long time," Bird said. "We've never had any down moments, so to speak. We clicked right off the bat on the court, clicked right off the bat off the court. It's been like that ever since."

Bird, now 35, and Taurasi, 34, continued their winning ways in the pros. Bird won WNBA titles in 2004 and 2010 with the Seattle Storm, while Taurasi's Phoenix Mercury won in 2007, 2009, and 2014. As teammates in Russia, Bird and Taurasi won four consecutive championships, too.

In 2011, each was selected among the top 15 players in WNBA history. Five years later, they are still competing for the same franchises that selected them with the first overall pick in the 2002 and 2004 drafts.

"Their day-to-day competitiveness is what sets them apart from a lot of people, wanting to be good in every drill," said Washington Mystics coach Mike Thibault, a former assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, and Milwaukee Bucks. "Having coached in the NBA and been around guys like Magic [Johnson] and Michael [Jordan], it's the same thing. You don't get to be that way without that fierce competitiveness."

Thibault witnessed Bird and Taurasi's work ethic and drive up close as an assistant on the 2006 U.S. world championship team and the 2008 Olympic squad. In 2006, the U.S. suffered its only loss in international competitions since the national team was formed eleven years earlier, falling to Russia 75-68 in the semifinals of the FIBA world championships. At the 2008 Olympics, the U.S. got some revenge and proved it was the best team, defeating Russia by 15 points in the semifinals and Australia by 27 in the gold-medal game.

The U.S. was just as dominant in the 2012 Olympics, beating France by 26 points in the championship and winning its fifth consecutive gold medal. Since 1995, the U.S. is 86-1 in international competitions, including 47-1 with Bird and Taurasi on the floor.

"Sue and I, we finish each other's sentences," Taurasi said. "We've had inside jokes for the last ten, 12 years. There's certain times where we don't have to say anything. We start laughing at a situation that's probably happened before. There's so much of that. And then on the court, there's no other point guard that I'd rather play with. She's by far the smartest player I've been on the court with."

Bird and Taurasi each have had setbacks in recent years. Bird missed the 2013 WNBA season after undergoing her fourth knee surgery in six years. Taurasi didn't play for the Mercury last year because she wanted to rest and her Russian team offered to pay her to sit out.

Still, both players remain among the world's best. Bird leads the WNBA in assists, while Taurasi is among the league's top ten in points (18.9) and assists (4.3) per game. They may finish their careers as the all-time leaders in assists (Bird) and scoring (Taurasi). Now in their mid-30s, they've become mentors and role models for younger players.

"There's so much knowledge between those two," said Team USA center Brittney Griner, who is on her first Olympics team. "They just trickle it down to us and make us better each and every night. It's really an honor to be able to play with D and Sue. You never know when they're going to hang up those shoes. Just to be on that court, I'm just taking it in every chance I can."

If the U.S. wins this month, Bird, Taurasi, and Tamika Catchings will join Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie as the only basketball players with four Olympic gold medals. This is likely the last time Bird and Taurasi will compete in the Olympics, and may be their final chance to play on the court together. In Team USA's 121-56 victory over Senegal in its Rio Games opener on Sunday, both were in peak form: Bird had seven assists and Taurasi scored 15 points as the U.S. women finished with their largest-ever victory margin in the Olympics.

"It doesn't matter for them what the stat sheet looks like," said Team USA assistant coach Dawn Staley, who played on the 2004 Olympics team with Bird and Taurasi. "Bottom line is you win gold. It's gold or failure. And they don't want failure a part of their resume."

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