Seattle Storm's Sue Bird becomes winningest player in WNBA history with 324th career victory

With the Storm pulling away late Wednesday to defeat the WNBA-leading Las Vegas Aces 88-78, Seattle point guard Sue Bird notched her 324th career victory and became the winningest player in league history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Bird, who announced earlier this month that this will be her final WNBA season, surpassed retired point guard Lindsay Whalen (323). Bird and Whalen are the lone two players in league history to play in at least 300 wins. Rebekkah Brunson and Swin Cash, the latter of whom played four seasons in Seattle with Bird, are tied for third at 294.

Because all of those players split their careers among multiple teams, Bird has an even bigger lead over Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury (279) for most wins with a single WNBA franchise.

«That's amazing,» said Storm coach Noelle Quinn, who played with Bird before retiring and joining the team's coaching staff. «She would probably say it's because she's old. That's always the response. Just the longevity of an amazing player to have such impact on the game.

»It's not only the assists with Sue, it's making big plays, the big shots. I thought she played great defense tonight. Those intangibles that she brings, but also: She's the GOAT, an amazing player with a long career and deserving of every single record she's about to break because she's played 20-something years."

Indeed, Bird downplayed the accomplishment — like she did when she became the WNBA's all-time leader in games and minutes played, joining the assists record she broke in 2017 — as a product of the 19 seasons she has played since being drafted by Seattle No. 1 out of Connecticut back in 2002. She noted that Whalen accomplished the record in fewer games (480 to Bird's