Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird announced their decision to go separate ways in the middle of April. The latter made an appearance on The Tonight Show as NBC’s newest WNBA studio analyst while the former continues to comment on a sport she did not play from a game she did not watch.
They present a stark contrast to one another after the breakup.
Say what you will about Rapinoe and Bird but they are two of the greatest female athletes of all-time. One scored 63 goals in 203 caps with the USWNT. The other won four WNBA championships as a 13-time All-Star and won five-straight Olympic gold medals with the United States national team. Those are two very different things.
Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird broke up.
Speaking of the Olympics, Bird and Rapinoe met at the 2016 Games in Rio. They quickly became one of the biggest power couples in the United States and stayed together for 10 years. They even started a podcast together! That’s how you know it’s real.
Megan Rapino proposed to Sue Bird during a tropical getaway to Antigua in 2020. Their engagement lasted until this past month. The couple announced their split (and the end of their podcast) on April 17.
The breakup seems mutual and amicable.
Rapino and Bird will publish six final episodes in the coming weeks, alternating as co-hosts. The numbers have not been great for the first two episodes, hosted only by Rapinoe. Her plans for what’s next are currently unclear but I’m sure she will be just fine. Bird already has something lined up.
NBC Sports brought her on as a studio analyst. She recently made an appearance on The Tonight Show to discuss her new role, among other topics.
The internet was buzzing about her “glow up.”
Meanwhile, Rapinoe is getting crushed on the internet for her most recent take.
Did Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez go too far with his WNBA press conference?
Jose Fernandez was hired as the new head coach of the Dallas Wings in October. He directly called out his players during a press conference last Thursday. They had just lost to the Minnesota Lynx.
“It’s real talk, and it’s accountability. That’s what I told them. I go, ‘There’s selfishness in this locker room.’ There is. You gotta look in the mirror and be accountable on how you played. And don’t get upset if you think that you should have played more, or you didn’t play enough, or you didn’t get the shots that you think you should have gotten. Really good teams, they don’t give a s— about that. You know what they give a s— about? They give a s— about winning. Because that’s what matters.”
Megan Rapinoe thought he went too far. She spoke about the head coach’s comments during her most recent podcast.
Critics were quick to check Rapinoe. Not only did she not even watch the game, she is not in the locker room, did not play women’s basketball and does not know the dynamics of the organization. Nor is she familiar with Fernandez as a coach.
Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers won a national championship with Geno Auriemma as head coach. He is notorious for being blunt. I am sure they were not fazed by Fernandez’s comments.
All of this goes to say that the former power couple has received two very different responses over the last 24/36/48 hours. People are swooning to Bird. Haters are jumping all over Rapinoe.