She doesn't lose when it matters and she rarely loses when it DOESN'T matter.
The U.S. women's basketball team has gone undefeated ever since Sue Bird's first Olympics, which were in Athens in 2004.
In competitive games for the U.S. team, whether its on the Olympic or FIBA stage, Bird is 142-6. In exhibition games, she's 54-2.
Tokyo 2020 will be Bird's fifth Olympics, probably her last one too. She's the all-time U.S. Olympic assist leader (89, through four Games, all golds).
For U.S. women in World Cup career statistics, she ranks first in assists (107), fifth in steals (38) and 10th in points (188).
She's also at the risk of being one of the most decorated basketball players ever (sorry Michael Jordan). Bird is one of 11 players to have collected a rare amount of silverware: four Olympic gold medals known as 'the Four Queens', FIBA World Cup gold, WNBA title and NCAA championship.
At the age of 40, there's little left for Bird to achieve other than carrying this young USA women's basketball team to the golden prize. For the first time in three decades, the team looks shaky as it relies heavily on a 40-year-old Bird and a 39-year-old Diana Taurasi in its starting lineup, which will remind a few about the last time the U.S. women's basketball team lost at the Olympics.
In 1992, the Unified Team upsets US women's basketball team at the Barcelona Olympics in the semifinals.
The Unified Team was the name used for the sports team of the former Soviet Union (except the Baltic states) at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the 1992
