President Joe Biden welcomed the WNBA’s Seattle Storm to the White House on Monday, celebrating not only their 2020 championship, but what their “remarkable” service to the country.
“What makes this team remarkable is they don’t just win games, they change lives,” Biden said, listing their accomplishments, including “encouraging people to get vaccinated so we can beat this pandemic; speaking out and standing up for racial justice and voting rights; supporting education and [mentorship] programs for young people; and fighting to protect trans youth from an epidemic of violence and discrimination.”
“That’s what winners do,” Biden said. “They shine the light, they lift people up, they’re a force for change. That’s the Seattle Storm, that’s the WNBA, that’s what they do.”
Biden celebrated the league on its 25th anniversary, saying they’ve changed “what’s possible for millions of women and girls all across the world. You give them courage.”
Biden called the league “groundbreaking” and celebrated the Seattle Storm for having “the only all-female ownership group in pro sports.”
The president called for the United States to support women’s sports for their impact on women and girls nationwide, as well as the country: “Not just during the Olympics, but during every season, by showing up in person and watching on TV.”
“These women are amazing athletes,” Biden said. The best in the world. We honor them by showing up for them.”
The Storm last visited the White House in 2011, and the trip marked veteran guard Sue Bird’s third trip to meet a U.S. president.
“I may need work after this,” Biden joked. “I’d be a good ball boy.”
Biden celebrated the female athletes in his family, including his granddaughter, Maisy.
“We all thought we were pretty good athletes, the men in our family,” Biden said. “I wasn’t a bad ball player, wasn’t a bad football, baseball player … gotta admit, all the women are better than us. All of them.”
Biden also recounted an anecdote from the campaign trail about top aide Annie Tomasini, who played point guard at Boston University. During a campaign event at a high school in Iowa, Biden bet their driver, a man over six feet tall, that Annie could beat him at basketball “in high heels.” Tomasini beat him 10-3, Biden said.
The president also celebrated Domestic Policy Council director Susan Rice, a former high school basketball player whose niece, Kiki Rice, is a top high school basketball recruit with aspirations of playing in the WNBA.
Biden made special mention of Bird, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart, thanking them for “bringing the gold home” with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this month.
“What you accomplished there was incredible,” Biden said of the Olympians. “Winning the seventh-straight basketball gold for Team USA.”
“Jewell’s first gold, Breanna’s second and Sue’s fifth, but who’s counting,” Biden joked of the Syosset, New York, native, who is widely considered to be one of the best players in WNBA history. “Record for any basketball player that plays, man or woman, and she shares with Diana [Taurasi], I just think that’s incredible.”
Biden referenced how Bird’s fiancé, Team USA soccer star Megan Rapinoe, visited the White House in March in honor of Equal Pay Day.
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“It’s really amazing,” Rapinoe said at the time, standing alongside teammate Margaret Purce in the White House press room when asked how it feels to be be there on Equal Pay Day. “Both of us feel honored to even be invited and continue the fight that we’ve had for a long time.”
Biden joked Monday that in March, they tried to get Rapinoe to go outside and play soccer with them, but “it didn’t work quite well … because we couldn’t keep up.”
Biden said that it’s “long past due” for equal pay for women in America.
The president said that Rapinoe and Bird not only share multiple championships, Olympic medals and elite sports resumes, but “above all, they define integrity and character.”
Biden said he was “proud” of how they represent the country: “They represent the best of what America stands for, as does this whole team.”
“This team met the moment,” Biden said of the Storm, who swept through the playoffs to win the title.
Biden also celebrated Stewart’s WNBA Finals MVP award — the culmination of her first season back from a torn Achilles — and Olympic MVP, but chided the Syracuse, New York, native on one topic near and dear to his heart: “I went to Syracuse, how come you didn’t? You went to Connecticut. I remember, I remember.”
“It was a great disappointment,” Biden said with a smile, adding: “But you know it’s true, I’m not joking.”
“To the whole Storm family, thank you all and congratulations,” Biden said, wishing them luck on the rest of the season.
Bird said it was “special” to be at the White House: “It feels good to be back in this place and to have our achievements celebrated in this way.”
The 4x WNBA champion celebrated the work the team has done, and thanked the Biden Administration for their continued work and support.
Bird, Stewart and Loyd presented Biden with a Seattle Storm jersey bearing the number 46.
The Storm were the first WNBA team to visit the White House since 2016. No NBA or WNBA team visited the White House during former President Donald Trump’s four years in office.
“I think for a very long time, up until 2016, going to the White House was an honor,” Bird said ahead of the visit. “It wasn’t necessarily political. It was to meet the president of the United States. The person who holds that office acknowledging your team’s success.”
The 2020 championship marked the Storm’s fourth, tied for most of any WNBA franchise.
