SEATTLE — Sue Chicken walked off the court docket Tuesday for the final time, her WNBA profession concluding the place it began 20 years earlier. Regardless of a season-ending loss, the Seattle Storm level guard obtained a becoming tribute from the group at Local weather Pledge Enviornment. The followers roared their appreciation for her 19 seasons as Chicken unsuccessfully fought again tears, repeatedly acknowledging the group by elevating her fingers, earlier than disappearing into the tunnel.
Chicken’s path from No. 1 total decide of the WNBA draft to future Corridor of Famer appeared direct. She walks away from the WNBA as essentially the most adorned participant in league historical past, with a document 13 All-Star appearances and 4 championships throughout a profession spent fully in Seattle.
Over 20 years right here, Chicken was a paragon of consistency, averaging double-figure scoring every of her first 16 seasons and no less than 4.8 assists in all however one among her campaigns. But the regular play required Chicken to navigate a collection of career-threatening surgical procedures on her troublesome left knee, an ever-changing group of teammates and her personal growing old.
All of it got here to an finish Tuesday, when the Las Vegas Aces eradicated the Storm 3-1 within the WNBA semifinals. As Chicken has mirrored on her profession over the past a number of weeks, she was maybe proudest of successful 4 WNBA championships throughout three completely different phases — and many years — of her profession. Chicken first gained as a part of a duo with fellow 23-year-old Lauren Jackson, then once more with the 2 stars of their prime six years later. She added the ultimate two championships as a veteran presence on a roster anchored by youthful stars Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart.
“It wasn’t similar to lightning in a bottle the place you had an awesome roster for a few years,” Chicken mentioned. “I used to be a part of groups the place every time we gained we needed to determine it out. It was a very completely different equation and we did it. I am actually happy with that.”
On the best way there, Chicken thought of leaving to complete her profession elsewhere earlier than recommitting to the Storm, finally outlasting six head coaches, six teammates who’ve already beat her to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame and even a constructing. (Longtime house KeyArena, now renovated as Local weather Pledge Enviornment.)
Because the curtain comes down one remaining time, we revisit the 4 phases of one of many biggest skilled careers in ladies’s sports activities historical past, together with the second Chicken knew she would end her profession in Seattle.
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Sue Chicken will get emotional reflecting on her 20-year profession within the WNBA.
Act I: ‘Large Children’
Scene: October 2004. Confetti is falling at KeyArena. A sellout crowd has seen the Storm beat the Connecticut Solar to win Seattle’s first main professional sports activities championship because the Sonics 25 years earlier. Chicken and Jackson, of their third season collectively, have fun the primary of what appears to be many titles collectively.
“We had no concept what we have been doing, we have been completely new to it,” Chicken recalled. “It felt wonderful. It was the primary time. It was the town’s first in [25 years] in order that pleasure was actual. We have been 23. We felt like we have been going to be within the Finals yearly — after which we weren’t.”
When Chicken was drafted No. 1 by the Storm in 2002, the franchise was younger in each sense. The WNBA had expanded to Seattle simply two years earlier, and in contrast to different growth groups that constructed up shortly, the Storm operated patiently. That resulted in back-to-back prime picks yielding Chicken and Jackson, precocious basketball abilities whose video games meshed completely.
“She and Lauren each, massive youngsters,” mentioned Jenny Boucek, who joined the Storm as an assistant below Anne Donovan forward of Chicken’s second season. “They performed for the love of the sport. There was a pleasure about them that was indescribable and that was their edge. Sue and Lauren’s pleasure gave them a fearlessness and nearly a naiveté that trumped a variety of issues that maintain groups and gamers again. They have been simply having a lot enjoyable.
“That was truly a bit of little bit of a problem for Anne as a result of it was so opposite to her character. I might typically have conversations with Anne like, ‘We have to maximise this. That is our edge. Though it is not how you use, our star gamers, they thrive in a enjoyable, playful setting.'”
It is onerous to consider now, however one of many questions for Chicken early in her profession was tips on how to be a frontrunner in a locker room stuffed with older gamers. Within the wake of a 2003 season that ended with Seattle simply outdoors the playoff image regardless of Jackson successful MVP for the primary time, the Storm centered on including extra expertise. Seattle added a pair of veteran starters, choosing Betty Lennox in a dispersal draft after the Cleveland Rockers folded, and buying Sheri Sam and key reserve Janell Burse through commerce.
“I believe the entire concept then was ‘Sue and Lauren are the cornerstones on this second, they’re this duo that we have to construct round,'” Chicken mentioned. “‘How can we make their lives simpler as younger gamers? How can we make it so they only should go on the market and play?'”
The strikes labored as envisioned. The Storm gained 20 video games for the primary time and loved home-court benefit all through the playoffs because of upsets elsewhere. Regardless of Chicken breaking her nostril throughout the crew’s first-round win over the Minnesota Lynx and present process surgical procedure the day earlier than the deciding Recreation 3 of the convention finals, she handed out 14 assists as Seattle superior to the WNBA Finals.
After dropping Recreation 1 in Connecticut, the Storm got here house to a full KeyArena and gained the following two video games. Lennox gained Finals MVP honors as Seattle celebrated a championship at house.
Free company, new to the WNBA as a part of a collective bargaining settlement signed after Chicken’s rookie season, took a toll on the Storm’s championship roster. Sam and fellow starter Kamila Vodichkova departed, as did Chicken’s backup, Tully Bevilaqua. Seattle nonetheless gained 20 video games the next season, however was upset within the opening spherical by the Houston Comets. By 2007, when Jackson gained MVP a second time, the Storm had dropped to .500 and have been swept out of the playoffs within the first spherical.
“We had a championship roster and we by no means acquired to construct on it,” Chicken mentioned. “We by no means acquired to see what was going to occur with it as a result of free company got here in. Now you fast-forward to 2006, 2007, I will be sincere: These rosters weren’t ok to win. May now we have overachieved and gotten additional? Undoubtedly, however these rosters weren’t essentially championship rosters.”
0:19
Sue Chicken passes to Breanna Stewart, who knocks down one other 3-pointer for the Storm.
Act II: Peaking
Scene: September 2010. Philips Enviornment, Atlanta. Coco Miller misses a 3-pointer that might have tied the rating and the Storm full an ideal postseason within the wake of a 28-6 common season. For the primary time since 2010, Chicken is a WNBA champion. She leaps into Jackson’s arms to have fun.
“We have been very mission-oriented in a means,” Chicken recalled of the 2010 season. “There was a mission. It was to win.”
Boucek, who returned to Seattle’s teaching employees in 2010 below coach Brian Agler, noticed the distinction 5 consecutive first-round exits made.
“I believe all of us took it without any consideration how ‘simply’ that got here and that we have been simply going to win a variety of them,” Boucek mentioned. “It had been a very long time in our world that it did not occur. So there was a seriousness that wasn’t there the primary time, a spotlight, an appreciation for the way tough this was.”
This was additionally a unique model of Chicken. After successful the primary title, she did not elevate her sport as anticipated in her mid-20s. She made the All-WNBA First Group every of her first 4 seasons, however was left off each groups at ages 25 and 26. In 2007, when Chicken handled midseason arthroscopic knee surgical procedure, her scoring common dropped to 10.4 PPG — the bottom it might be for a decade.
Taking part in with out Jackson, injured throughout first-round exits in 2008 and 2009, pressured Chicken to turn into extra aggressive offensively. In 2008, her scoring common bounced again to 14.1 PPG. In 2011, Chicken averaged a career-high 14.7 factors, incomes All-WNBA honors each years.
“I all the time joke I am a Robin, I am not a Batman,” Chicken mentioned. “However I am additionally like a chameleon in some methods. I’ve to suit into what the crew wants. We had this participant that all the things was primarily based round. Now it was like, ‘Alright, we have got to select up the slack.'”
Throughout this stretch, Chicken earned an unforgettable however profane nickname on a well-liked WNBA message board for her tendency to make massive photographs late in video games to assist the Storm put opponents away: Sue Die Bulls— Chicken. Teammate Tanisha Wright delighted in joking along with her about it.
“I do not know the primary time I heard it,” Chicken mentioned, “nevertheless it’s a hell of a f’ing nickname. It is a praise.”
Within the 2010 playoffs alone, Chicken made a pair of game-winning photographs to assist maintain the Storm unbeaten. In Recreation 2 at Phoenix, Chicken moved off the ball whereas Wright ran a pick-and-roll, then delivered a catch-and-shoot 3 to cap a comeback from down 12 with 3:21 left and full the sweep.
Per week later, it was Chicken working pick-and-roll with Jackson, whose shifting display screen freed Chicken to make a pull-up jumper within the remaining seconds to win Recreation 1 of the WNBA Finals in opposition to the Dream.
“I’ve by no means been round a extra clutch shooter than Sue Chicken,” Agler mentioned. “Her potential to hit key free throws, hit key photographs within the guts of the sport, there have been a number of instances she did that within the years I used to be there. There isn’t any means I might have extra confidence in anyone else than her.”
The 2010 postseason marked one other turning level for Chicken: With Boucek unable to journey for playoff video games because of a rule briefly limiting groups to at least one full-time assistant coach, they started watching movie collectively to review opposing defenses and determine how Chicken might finest counter them, one thing Agler mentioned “took her sport to a different stage.”
“I’ve by no means been round a extra clutch shooter than Sue Chicken.”
Former Storm coach Brian Agler
“Sue’s mind may be very very similar to a pc,” Boucek defined. “When you put the recordsdata within the file cupboards and also you load up that database, she is best than anyone I’ve ever seen at with the ability to pull from giant quantities of knowledge on the proper time. By the point she acquired to the sport, she would use her genius to drag from it, however she was ready.”
To Chicken, the additional research was all about discovering any edge mandatory throughout a playoff run the place the crew’s remaining 4 wins got here by three factors or fewer.
“When you can steal a possession in that means, simply by outsmarting them,” Chicken mentioned. “I’ve type of discovered that is the place a variety of my power lies — with the ability to use my IQ to type of manipulate. Jenny helped me set up that.”
Act III: Rebuilding and recommitting
Scene: September 2015. Night time of the WNBA draft lottery. UConn star Breanna Stewart, who has already gained three consecutive NCAA titles, is the prized No. 1 decide subsequent spring. Seattle has the most effective odds. Watching at a sports activities bar close to Seattle, Chicken sees WNBA president Laurel Richie open an envelope with the Storm’s emblem and is aware of it means she’ll end her profession the identical place it began.
“Stewie does not understand it,” Chicken mentioned, “however she type of saved my profession right here in a variety of methods. If we do not get the No. 1 decide that 12 months, I do not know. I actually do not know. On the identical time, if I’m going to New York, who is aware of if I final so long as I’ve lasted now. Issues occur for a cause and I am glad they occurred the best way they did.”
To get in place to land Stewart required Seattle to rebuild for the primary time in Chicken’s profession. The roster had aged and atrophied, with Jackson final enjoying within the WNBA in 2012 because of damage. The Storm have been coming off a 12-22 document in 2014, when Agler departed for the Los Angeles Sparks. Chicken’s future in Seattle was additionally changing into a query mark.
“The query I needed to ask myself,” Chicken mentioned, “Effectively, anyone else, I believe it was [UConn] coach (Geno) Auriemma, posed it to me this manner, which was: ‘Do you ever wish to play in a significant WNBA sport once more?’ I used to be like, ‘Oh man, once you put it that means.'”
Taking part in for her hometown New York Liberty loomed as an possibility. Not solely have been they a contender led by a pair of native New Yorkers — Tina Charles and Epiphanny Prince, each of whom performed with Chicken throughout her remaining season — the Liberty additionally had added former Seattle teammates Wright and Swin Money, two of Chicken’s closest buddies within the league.
“Stewie does not understand it, however she type of saved my profession right here in a variety of methods. If we do not get the No. 1 decide that 12 months, I do not know.”
Sue Chicken, who thought of leaving Seattle previous to Seattle successful the 2016 WNBA draft lottery and the fitting to pick Breanna Stewart at No. 1
Inevitably, they tried to recruit Chicken to New York. And Chicken might simply envision enjoying at iconic Madison Sq. Backyard with family and friends in attendance.
“I positively fell in love with the fantasy of that,” Chicken mentioned. “It turned very enticing.”
Particularly as losses mounted throughout the 2015 season.
“We’re dropping a variety of video games,” Chicken recalled. “That is what we signed up for. That is what I signed up for. Clearly Stewie was popping out of school the following 12 months, in order that was very a lot the motivating issue, nevertheless it acquired onerous. Dropping is difficult.
“You simply wish to really feel good on the market. It does not all the time should be about dropping and successful, however you wish to really feel good on the market. It was robust.”
On the identical time Chicken was deciding the place she would end her profession, she was additionally taking steps to make sure she stored enjoying at a excessive stage deep into her 30s. Chicken started working carefully with efficiency coach Susan King Borchardt, who had been a part of the Seattle group seasonally, on a year-round foundation. The distinction was evident.
“She did an exceptional job of constructing the choice that she was going to put money into her physique and deal with her physique in these latter years,” Wright mentioned. “I do know that is a irritating half since you’ve had these knee points … however I believe Sue did an exceptional job of constructing the choice to say, ‘I am committing to this,’ and clearly it is helped her tremendously these final 5 years.
“When you noticed her in motion, it is like, ‘Oh, s—.’ That is real-deal stuff. For her to make that dedication at that age? Kudos to her.”
“Sue’s mind may be very very similar to a pc. When you put the recordsdata within the file cupboards and also you load up that database, she is best than anyone … at with the ability to pull from giant quantities of knowledge on the proper time.”
Former Storm coach Jenny Boucek, on watching sport movie and serving to Chicken put together for opposing defenses
In the meantime, Boucek — who changed Agler as head coach in 2015 — was putting in an offense that might spotlight Chicken’s decision-making prowess in addition to characteristic Stewart, ought to the Storm be capable to draft her.
“I am so grateful for that,” Chicken mentioned, “as a result of I used to be at a spot in my profession the place I felt like I used to be plateauing and wanted to vary my food plan. That type actually breathed new life for me. It wasn’t like catered towards me nevertheless it actually was designed for a participant like myself.”
With Seattle locked right into a battle in opposition to the San Antonio Silver Stars for pole place within the draft lottery, Chicken sat out 4 of the final 5 video games in 2015, together with a loss to San Antonio within the regular-season finale that assured the Storm the most effective odds. When the successful mixture got here up for Seattle, Chicken’s selection in free company was clear. She took conferences to undergo the free company course of however by no means significantly thought of leaving.
“I knew deep down,” Chicken mentioned, “if we acquired the No. 1 decide I used to be not going anyplace.”
Act IV: Again on prime
Scene: September 2018. Chicken is celebrating a championship once more, this time in opposition to the Washington Mystics. She’s now the veteran on a bunch of gamers largely experiencing successful a title for the primary time, as is coach Dan Hughes.
“For me personally,” Chicken mentioned, “what was completely different from 2004 and 2010 is I legitimately by no means thought I’d be on the No. 1 crew going into the playoffs and having an opportunity to go to the Finals. That was off the desk for me. I simply did not even enable myself to think about it that means. I haven’t got like a favourite Sue Chicken retires a legend and future Corridor of Famer, however the Seattle Storm level guard solely made it look simple per se, however I believe when it is all mentioned and executed, 2018 will all the time stand out.”
Seattle’s success with Stewart wasn’t fast. After reaching the playoffs throughout Stewart’s rookie season, when Chicken was voted All-WNBA First Group at age 35 after taking pictures what was then a career-best 44% from 3-point vary, the Storm backslid in 2017, costing Boucek her job. Hughes, one of many league’s winningest coaches, took over however retained a lot of the offense Boucek had put in.
Regardless of Stewart’s potential, Chicken famous Seattle was nonetheless picked seventh going into the 2018 season, when Hughes, a longtime WNBA head coach, took over. Chicken and newcomer Natasha Howard, a reserve on championship groups in Indiana and Minnesota, have been the lone core gamers with vital postseason expertise.
“No one realized the influence Natasha was going to have on our crew,” Chicken mentioned. “I do not suppose we realized it. In actuality, when you have a look at it, she did not even begin [the first game]. It wasn’t till [Crystal Langhorne] acquired harm after which she needed to begin. We had all the proper items in a variety of methods and Natasha Howard getting into that lineup unlocked all of it.”
In Chicken, who had seen all of it by that time, a younger crew additionally had the proper veteran chief. All the time able to main by instance — Boucek known as her an awesome “influencer” of her teammates — Chicken had turn into extra comfy as a vocal presence within the locker room over time.
“Sue had the knowledge to grasp that a variety of issues acquired to occur to place your self in place to be champion once more,” Hughes mentioned, “particularly after a rebuild state of affairs. I believe the identical issues she appreciated, I appreciated.
“I believe that appreciation is one thing that wasn’t misplaced to the teammates that hadn’t lived that life to know that that is uncommon air. You need all the things you may at that second to be invested in the fitting means. As a frontrunner of our crew, that was an awesome message she carried.”
Two years later, after each Chicken (because of one more knee surgical procedure) and Stewart (Achilles rupture) missed the chance to defend the title in 2019, the Storm gained a fourth championship below distinctive circumstances. The 2020 season was performed in a bubble on the IMG campus in Bradenton, Florida, with gamers using their platform to focus on social justice, particularly the “Say Her Name” campaign.
To Chicken, the 2020 Seattle crew — additionally undefeated within the playoffs — deserves to be thought of among the many WNBA’s biggest groups ever.
“We had the identical expertise from 2018, solely we acquired higher and deeper,” she mentioned. “Now we had these vets — clearly I am an older vet, however Stewie and Jewell at the moment are vets. Then you definitely add Jordin [Canada] and Cedes [Mercedes Russell], they don’t seem to be vets, however they’re WNBA gamers. It is not their rookie 12 months anymore.”
For all of the younger expertise round Chicken, she remained an indispensable a part of the Storm’s final two championship groups. In 2020, they went 16-1 within the 17 video games Chicken performed, struggling three of their 4 losses along with her sidelined throughout the common season.
As Chicken turned older, she discovered methods to compensate for dropping the pace Agler mentioned made her a “a lot, significantly better athlete than folks gave her credit score for” in her prime. Alongside the best way, Chicken’s manufacturing remained remarkably constant into her 40s.
“I’ve actually been a unique participant in every five-year section,” Chicken mentioned. “I have been a bit of bit completely different bodily and I’ve simply been capable of finding methods.
“I by no means in my life have relied on my dimension, on my power. I believe there have been instances earlier in my profession the place I relied on quickness a bit of bit — not relied on however I wanted it. It is how I acquired locations. With every change bodily that has come, I have been in a position to adapt as a result of I by no means actually relied on it in these different methods. My expertise and my smarts, so long as I had that, you may overcome among the bodily adjustments.”
Now Chicken is strolling away from the WNBA after enjoying extra video games than another participant in league historical past (579; solely Diana Taurasi has additionally performed in no less than 500 video games) and doing so on her phrases, having determined to return for a remaining season after followers chanted “Yet another 12 months!” following Seattle’s 2021 playoff loss to Phoenix.
After initially leaving the door open to extending her profession, Chicken introduced her retirement halfway by way of the Storm’s schedule, giving followers a chance to indicate their appreciation throughout her remaining marketing campaign. A sellout crowd of 18,000-plus, the biggest in franchise historical past, turned out for her remaining regular-season sport in Seattle.
Chicken is conscious well being might have prevented that ending, because it did for Jackson’s WNBA profession — particularly contemplating Chicken’s left knee points relationship to an ACL tear throughout her freshman 12 months in 1998 however accelerated by microfracture surgical procedure to deal with a meniscus damage in 2003. No different skilled basketball participant is understood to have performed so lengthy after microfracture, which has turn into more and more uncommon as a standard remedy.
“The story that no one talks about is my knee,” Chicken mentioned. “That is the knee of a 70-year-old. Within the bubble I had a bone bruise. I acquired an MRI and the physician who was on web site opened it up and was like, ‘WTF?’ My knee often will get that response from medical doctors. Individuals always inform me, ‘I do not understand how you are doing it.’ I do not understand how I am doing it both! A few of it’s luck, a few of it’s good genetics.”
Because the psychological and bodily toll of enjoying grew and Chicken ready for her subsequent act as an investor in NJ/NY Gotham FC of the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League, co-owner of the ladies’s sports activities media model TOGETHXR and a broadcaster, the time to retire was proper “for thus many causes,” she mentioned.
Positive, there is a sport right here or there Chicken needs had gone otherwise, a move she hadn’t made or a shot she had taken. Nonetheless, she’s retiring happy with a profession that might be tough for future generations of WNBA stars to match.
“There’s like these tiny little regrets by way of that,” Chicken mentioned. “However I believe that is simply pure as an athlete to be like, ‘Dang, I want we might have gained that one.’ However usually talking, I really feel very a lot at peace and comfortable with my profession. I haven’t got heavy remorse. I haven’t got just about any shoulda coulda wouldas.
“I do know that I did all the things I might to win championships and we have been profitable in that regard, so it feels actually good. I do know I had a optimistic influence on my neighborhood, on my groups. I do not really feel like every stones have been unturned in that means.”
Earlier than becoming a member of ESPN, Kevin Pelton spent 10 years working for the Seattle Storm because the crew’s web site reporter.