Seattle Storm point guard Sue Bird has opened up about her sexuality just days before the eyes of the WNBA world will be focused on the Emerald City.  “I’m gay,” Bird told ESPNW in an feature entitled “Ready to let you in”.

In the on-line piece, which was published Thursday, Bird also talks about her girlfriend. She is dating Seattle Reign and U.S. women’s national team soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Bird said the news is not a secret to those who know her.  “I don’t feel like I’ve not lived my life,” said Bird.  “I think people have this assumption that if you’re not talking about it, you must be hiding it, like it’s this secret. That was never the case for me.”

Bird, who said she realized she was gay when she was a star player at the University of Connecticut, will make her record-tying 10th WNBA All-Star Game appearance Saturday.

So did the normally very private Bird make the announcement to coincide with the WNBA’s marquee event in Seattle? It doesn’t sound like it.

It’s happening when it’s happening because that’s what feels right,” Bird told ESPNW. “So even though I understand there are people who think I should have done it sooner, it wasn’t right for me at the time. I have to be true to that. It’s my journey.”

Saturday’s  WNBA All Star Game tips-off at 12:30pm at KeyArena.

(KPUG – Doug Lange)