Basketball Star Sue Bird Says WNBA Players' Activism Is 'Nonnegotiable'

Basketball superstar Sue Bird cleared many hurdles alongside her teammates over the course of an unusual season to win her fourth WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm earlier this month.

But long before her victory on the court, she joined her WNBA teammates in leading a bigger fight, through activism on social justice issues.

As a vice president of the WNBA players union, the point guard worked with her colleagues to figure out how to play safely during the pandemic in the "wubble," the bubble the WNBA built in order to play out the season. While union leadership hammered out contracts with the league, Bird says one demand topped their list of "nonnegotiables":

"Our season was going to have to be played with social justice messages, on our jerseys, on the floor — forefront. And to [the league's] credit, right from the jump, they were in," Bird said in an interview with NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.