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Olympic Basketball Player Sue Bird: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me (I Went to High School With Natalie Portman)

Sue Bird
Olympic Basketball player Sue Bird poses for photos at the 2016 Team USA Media Summit in Beverly Hills.Damian Dovarganes/AP Images

As Sue Bird heads into her fourth Olympics, she and her fellow USA teammates have one goal in mind: the sixth women’s basketball gold in a row. The team, which also includes WNBA stars Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, has been busy preparing for the Olympics while juggling their professional schedules. In a rare moment of downtime, the 35-year-old Seattle Storm player shared a list of 25 interesting facts about herself exclusively with Us Weekly.

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1. I collect mugs from my travels.

2. My favorite karaoke songs are "Real Love" by Mary J. Blige and "Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground.

3. I love to go bowling and regularly break 200.

4. I hate sharks and seaweed, so I never go too far out in the ocean.

5. I wear #10 because my sister and I are both born in October.

6. I was anti-Twitter when it first came out and didn't join that or Instagram until 2013.

8. I had my tongue pierced in college but another teammate of mine, who had hers pierced too, got caught by our coaches (we weren't allowed to have that), and so I got scared and took it out.

9. To this day, I don't think my coaches ever knew.

10. I host a parody/spin-off of Zach Galifianakis's Between Two Ferns called Between Two Birds. So far I've only had my Seattle Storm teammates on, but I'd love to branch out.

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11. I am an investor in three restaurants in Boston: Five Horses Tavern, Five Horses South and Worden Hall. I also invest in two of Geno Auriemma's (my college coach at University of Connecticut) restaurants.

12. For two years I went to high school with Natalie Portman. That’s my true claim to fame.

13. I'm the fourth most famous person to attend Syosset High School behind Natalie, Judd Apatow and Idina Menzel.

14. My mother is Christian. My father is Jewish. I graduated from a Catholic High School and I have Israeli citizenship.

15. My sister is five years older and when we were younger she used to "time me" so I'd go get her things. This continued until the day I figured it out, and when she asked me to get her a drink, I put soap in it. That ended that.

16. When I was 5 years old I went through a kleptomaniac phase (all harmless things, like my sister's glasses and my mom's keys, but still).

17. I also went through a bathing suit phase where I had to have one under all my clothes, at all times. I was 4.

18. Soccer was actually my first love but eventually basketball took that over.

19. The first time I was ever asked for my autograph was when I was in sixth grade. My Catholic youth organization team played at halftime of a St. Johns/UConn women's basketball game and afterwards a security guard asked me. Who knew I would end up there.

20. When I first got to Seattle, I was walking around downtown and got stopped by a cop for jaywalking. He let me off with a warning, but I quickly realized I wasn't in New York anymore.

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21. I recently bought a record player, and now my favorite pastime is checking out record stores in Seattle.

22. I'm allergic to cats, some dogs, certain nuts and fruit with skin.

23. My musical preference is hip-hop and I would love to be on Lip Sync Battle.

24. My favorite basketball shoe of all time is the Uptempo by Nike, hands down.

25. My favorite pre- and post-game drink is Vitargo. Best I've ever used.

The Rio Olympics begin August 5 and will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app. The Rio Paralympics begin September 7 and will be streamed live on TeamUSA.org.

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