"I'm proud of everything we've accomplished here," she said after the game, according to ESPN. "Of course I'm sad, but there's happiness too, to be able to have a moment like that with the fans, to have them chant the way they did. I know the tears don't look like happy tears, but there's a lot of happiness."

Bird's storied career has redefined basketball in Seattle and nationwide. The WNBA designated her one of the 25 greatest players in league history last year (after naming her one of its 20 greatest-ever players at its 20th-anniversary celebration in 2016, and one of its 15 greatest players five years before that).