Megan Rapinoe won Olympic gold and a World Cup, but she didn’t quite know how to act the first time she met Sue Bird.
The setting: The November 2015 NBC and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media summit in West Hollywood, Calif. More than 100 hopefuls for the Rio Games gathered over a series of days for interviews and promotional photo and video shoots.
Rapinoe and Bird happened to be scheduled on the same day. They happened to cross paths between stages.
Rapinoe, uncharacteristically nervous, searched for something to say. Bird was in a basketball uniform.