Some people collect comic books or sports paraphernalia or old vinyl records.

Well, my guest today, Sue Byrd, she collects championships.

She has four WNBA championships, five Euroleague basketball championships, two NCAA championships,

two NCAA championships, four international basketball federation World Cups, and four Olympic gold medals.

And at the age of 40, she's still going strong, leading the Seattle Storm to the WNBA title this fall,

and looking to collect her fifth Olympic gold, if and when the Tokyo Olympics take place.

Sue Bird is busy off the court as well.

She recently helped negotiate a landmark collective bargaining agreement for the WMBA players,

and she and soccer star Megan Rapino got engaged last October.

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

So this will be my first time interviewing an athlete, and I really wonder how it will go.

I think this podcast works best when my guests are highly reflective and willing and able to

self-analyze. And in my limited personal experience with professional athletes,

those are not very common traits. So I've never met Sue Bird. People who know her say she's

smart, thoughtful, generous, and open. Well, I guess I'm about to find out. Sue, you turned out to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

But I'm curious, when did you realize who good you would be?

Did you already know that in high school?

Yeah, I think I started to understand in high school how things could turn out,

even as early as middle school, to be honest. College should start recruiting you then and sending

you letters, and that's when your eyes kind of get a little bit wider. Never would I have

imagined sitting here now with all the accolades and championships, but you definitely start to get

a glimpse. One of the most overwhelming biases we see in psychology is towards overconfidence.

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