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.
“That’s kind of, to me, where the issue is. Where I feel like I’ve learned throughout that process is you have to be who you are. You have to be … true to who you are and authentic.
“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.”
