There has been an ongoing conversation for a while about who is the point-guard-of-the-future for the U.S. women's basketball team. But such discussion should never be boiled down to this question: Who's the next Sue Bird?
Because that would be drastically unfair to anyone who someday will play point guard for the senior national squad after Bird has moved on to whatever else she will do spectacularly well. Broadcasting, which she already has started? Coaching? Running the WNBA? Maybe she'll do all that and more.
But there simply isn't going to be a duplicate of Bird on court. So let's genuinely appreciate her while she's still playing.
Bird, who is currently competing in her fourth Olympics, will turn 36 in October. But she looks to be in the best shape of her life, and her stats for her 14th WNBA season are as good as they've been in her career.
Bird is very exacting about what she expects in her own performance, and the previous couple of years had not met her standards.
"I felt like I wasn't myself, and that can be tough," she said. "Kind of looking in the mirror and asking yourself, 'How do you want your career to end?' That's what it really came down to.
"I figured, 'Why not just try to control everything you can? Dot every 'i' and cross every 't' and see where it gets you.' I really worked on my nutrition, and on a workout plan that was going to be really beneficial to my body. I'm lucky that I have people in Seattle that are going to support me."
Meaning that those in the Storm organization understand that Bird doesn't need to partake in a lot of punishing practices at this point in her career. There are other things, like bike riding, that actually do her more good.
"When you don't have to worry about your body feeling like crap every day," Bird said, "when that's a consistent thing -- of feeling good -- it allows you to actually worry about what's in front of you and what's important."
There is no way for athletes to beat "time," but they can cheat it as much as possible if they take the right approach. You'd expect nothing less from Bird.
"If Sue was 'old,' and played 'old,' and thought 'old,' and acted 'old,' she wouldn't have made the team," U.S. Olympic coach Geno Auriemma said. "But Sue at her age thinks quicker, and moves quicker, and makes more plays for other people than any other guard in the league.
"I'm not privy to all the huddles that are out there. But I'm sure when there's a huddle, there's only one person that's talking, and everybody's nodding their head."
Bird would appreciate the compliment, but she has never been very comfortable with such things. She is intensely competitive, but more at ease with humorous self-deprecation and deflection of praise to others.
You could go through the entire list of people who have played or currently are playing point guard -- male or female, pro or college, we truly mean anybody -- and you won't find one whose very essence is more "point guard" than Bird.
It is in everything she does as a basketball player: from her commitment to setting up teammates on the court, to how she thinks of "the collective" at all times.
You get the feeling Bird could be home alone cooking dinner and she'd be wondering if all her teammates were eating something healthy. She's the one who can hold everyone accountable by holding herself the most accountable.
Bird always has been the smartest kid in class who never needs to tell you that, or even have it acknowledged. If the scoreboard reads in favor of her team, that's what matters.
"Sue at her age thinks quicker, and moves quicker, and makes more plays for other people than any other guard in the [WNBA]." USA Basketball coach Geno Auriemma on 35-year-old Sue Bird
This is not to say, though, that Bird doesn't focus on herself, because of course she does. Bird probably couldn't help but hear the chatter from some women's basketball fans that maybe it was time for the national team to move on to a much younger guard corps back before the 2014 world championship.
Yet the reality is that Bird and Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen, 34, are still premier point guards in the WNBA and great leaders at that position for the national team.
And, as mentioned, the fine-tuning Bird did with her diet and her fitness really did help slam the door shut on why she's still running the show for the Americans. It's obvious in her play.
Bird is leading the WNBA in assists at 6.0 per game, and she's averaging 12.5 points while shooting a career-high 44.1 percent from 3-point range. She's also helping "oversee" the development of the Storm's two No. 1 draft picks of 2015 and '16, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart, the latter of whom is on the Olympic team with Bird.
"I love playing with Sue," Stewart said. "Just the fact that she's been through so much that she knows everything. She's a tremendous leader, not only on the basketball court, but off."
It is in keeping with how analytically Bird approaches everything that she has put a lot of thought into how to mentor younger players.
"I have moments where I think to myself, 'What do I wish I was told at 21 or 22?' " Bird said. "And it's nothing groundbreaking. It's just little stuff. Immediately, I told Stewie, 'Something you're going to need to take care of is your body.'
"Now, you can probably eat McDonald's every day -- I'm not saying she does this, but just as an example -- and sleep six hours, and play back-to-back games and be none the wiser. But you might as well start the good habits now. Because I'm telling you, in 10 years, you're not going to be able to do that."
Bird also knows that even if you do everything right, injuries can still get you. That's what ended the career of Bird's longtime Storm teammate, Lauren Jackson, and for the first time since 1996, the Australians will play in the Olympics without her. She competed for the Opals in the Summer Games in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
The Storm retired Jackson's number in July, and it was Bird's hilarious and heartfelt tribute speech to Jackson that was the highlight of the ceremony. Bird was moved to tears -- and took everybody in attendance with her -- talking about her empathy for Jackson no longer being physically able to play.
Bird is grateful she still can. She thinks back to 2004 when she competed in her first Olympics, soaking up all the advice offered by veterans like Dawn Staley. Now here Bird is a dozen years later, at another Olympics and sounding as if she still gets wiser by the day.
"At some point, it's mind over matter," Bird said of how she faces challenges. "My WNBA team is young, so this is something I preach to them.
"Let's say our flight was delayed the night before, and we end up getting in at 2 in the morning. It then becomes a decision. It really does. You're either going to allow it to affect you, or you're not.
"Even within a game, I have moments where I have to remind myself, 'All right, you need to pick it up' or 'Your energy is low.' There is a saying, 'You fake till you make it' for a reason. You just have to push yourself, and it's easier said than done."
Unless you're Bird. Because -- whether it's with the WNBA, overseas or the national team -- she says it and does it with equal aplomb.