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Sue Bird Reveals Why Caitlin Clark 'Better Break' Her WNBA Record

WNBA legend Sue Bird got honest about Caitlin Clark's pursuit of her all-time league record.
Grant Young|
Jul 17, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) passes the ball past Dallas Wings guard Odyssey Sims (2) during the second half at College Park Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
Jul 17, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) passes the ball past Dallas Wings guard Odyssey Sims (2) during the second half at College Park Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

No women's basketball player in the sport's history has been better at passing the ball than Sue Bird.

The four-time WNBA champion, 13-time WNBA All-Star, and five-time Olympic gold medalist for Team USA also owns the record for most assists in a WNBA career, with 3,234. However, what's perhaps most surprising about Bird's assists record is that the most she has amassed in any WNBA regular season is 221, which ties her (with herself) at No. 22 for a single-season in league history.

Speaking of No. 22, Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark broke the single-season assists record during her rookie 2024 season, tallying 337 in total. Therefore, if Clark can remain healthy and produce as long and prosperous of a career as it seems she's destined for, Bird's career assist record seems well within reach.

And Bird spoke to this during her June 10 appearance on No Offseason: The Athletics Women's Basketball Show.

"These records have no chance because they play way more games now," Bird said when asked about Clark potentially breaking her all-time assists record. "I don’t want to get too caught up in the games played because it is what it is. I don’t feel any way about it because records are meant to be broken.

"But I played 34 games for the majority of my career. So the players today are on the clock with these records. They better break those things in like five years," she added.

Bird is alluding to the fact that the WNBA regular season is now 44 games long, and was 40 games in 2024. And there's a good chance the season schedule will only expand once a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is instituted for 2026.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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