Sue Bird confirms Tokyo is her last Olympics and other takeaways from Team USA’s win over Nigeria in its women’s basketball pool play opener

Fans may joke that Sue Bird, the WNBA’s oldest active player and the league’s all-time assists leader, will play forever. But on Tuesday after Team USA’s 81-72 win over Nigeria in its Tokyo debut, the five-time Olympian and four-time WNBA champion said this will be her last Olympics.

When asked by reporters in Tokyo if she would play in more Summer Games after 2021, Bird matter-of-factly responded, “No, I won’t,” according to the Washington Post.

“You never count Sue out,” U.S. coach Dawn Staley said. “I know she said that, but she continues to play. She continues to play well … and if it is indeed her last Olympics, I’d sure like to send her off into the sunset with another medal.”

The news isn’t entirely shocking given Bird, the most decorated FIBA athlete of all time with nine gold medals in Olympic and World Cup play, is on the cusp of turning 41. A gold in Tokyo would make her and teammate Diana Taurasi the only basketball athletes to win five Olympic golds.

With six Olympic first-timers — including four in the backcourt — the Nigeria game showed that Bird’s work is far from done. Although Bird went 0-for-6 from the floor and finished with zero points, she dished out 13 of the U.S’s 25 assists, a personal Olympic high, and just two turnovers. At her best, she was carving out the Nigerian defense, finding teammates in transition or around the rim. While the U.S. looked shaky at times, the Americans outscored Nigeria by 20 points when Bird was on the court, the second-best mark behind Taurasi (28).

It was the sort of performance that reminded fans just how critical Bird has been to USA Basketball’s success for nearly two decades as Team USA aims to win a seventh straight gold medal.

Here are some other takeaways from the U.S.’s win.

Taurasi is back

Taurasi, who missed most of the last two months of WNBA and USA play with a fractured sternum and a hip pointer injury, saw the court for 23 minutes in her first game since July 3. The UConn legend led Team USA with 10 first-half points in her U.S.-record 33rd Olympic appearance.

“I felt pretty good. Hopefully it keeps getting better day by day,” Taurasi said after the game. “As a group I think we did some good things today, some things we have to work on. I think overall it was a pretty good match by us.”

Wilson not looking like a rookie

Reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson said she was nervous going into Tuesday’s game, her first-ever Olympic appearance. She didn’t play that way on the court, finishing with a team-high 19 points (on 6-10 shooting, 7-10 on free throws) and 13 rebounds.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

Partly a product of Nigeria’s defensive pressure and partly a product of the U.S.’s lack of chemistry, Team USA turned over the ball 25 times, allowing Nigeria to attempt 18 more shots and stay in the game despite shooting just 27 percent from the field. The U.S. is averaging 19.5 turnovers per game across its three pre-Tokyo exhibitions and its Olympic opener.

A work in progress

The U.S. wants to play inside-out, but that has been a struggle at times with the team’s failure to hit shots from the perimeter. On Tuesday, the Americans hit just 5 of 20 3-point shots. Over its four recent games, the U.S. made just 31 percent of them.

Newcomers getting acclimated

Although the Olympic vets have made their mark, the newcomers outside of Wilson appear to be slowly adjusting to the Olympic stage. The U.S. got just 15 points from their non-Wilson five first-timers against Nigeria and struggled on the defensive end as well.

“What’s unique about this particular year — [Taurasi] and I have actually talked about this among ourselves — it’s really the first time, if memory serves, we’ve had six first-timers on one team,” Bird said, according to the Post. “There’s always kind of been a good mix of people who have been there done that, and then the newcomers that were kind of going to take the torch eventually. So this does feel a little different in that it’s six newcomers, and that’s just kind of how the cookies crumble.”

“This team is still figuring it out,” Bird said. “We’ll get there.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com