Sue Bird deserves significant credit for the worldwide growth in women’s basketball over the last two decades. She led the U.S. Olympic gold-medal streak and the WNBA on the precipice of an explosion, spent a decade competing overseas and was a stateswoman as well as a competitor who’d happily rip your heart out.She did this work for the game she loved, shepherding a generation of players and cementing a foundation for a sport, league and legacy. The problem is when you’re good enough to build something that can outlast you, if you stick around long enough, you might end up battling some of the beasts you raised.So, congrats?Bird, a five-time gold medalist, is now the U.S. women’s national team managing director, tasked with selecting coaches and rosters for the most successful basketball team. As the U.S. enters the World Cup semifinals, Bird and Team USA must contend with upholding the standard she helped set as the world has made strides in catching up.Teams like France and Italy grew up in a basketball world where Bird was the perennial player standard, and now, they are closer than ever to knocking the United States off its perch. Meanwhile, A’ja Wilson, the world’s best player, is stateside recovering from a nagging injury in preparation to run it back with the Las Vegas Aces, prioritizing the league Bird helped build at the expense of the team Bird currently helps run.Even if the U.S. skates to a gold medal on Sunday, it’s impossible to ignore the signs of a shifting world order. It’s not just that France came within a point of the U.S. in the 2024 Olympic gold-medal game in Paris. Last week, Les Bleus set a FIBA record by hitting 22 3-pointers (compare that to the U.S., which is currently shooting worse than 30 percent from beyond the arc). They appear to be the team most primed to upset Team USA, which owns four consecutive World Cup golds.Then there was that game against Italy in pool play. Italian guard Cecilia Zandalasini looked unfazed as she led all scorers with 14 points. In a game in which no U.S. player seemed ready to take over (until almost too late), Zandalasini, who plays for the Golden State Valkyries, was more than happy to be the buoying force on the floor. And why not? Why would she feel out of place? She has played in 126 WNBA games, some alongside players wearing Team USA uniforms. Her current WNBA coach, Natalie Nakase, is an assistant for Team USA. A week from now, Zandalasini will be back in the Bay on the same sideline as Nakase. In her Italian uniform, she had Team USA on its heels.Belgium, a team that has retained nearly half its roster from the 2018 World Cup, is coached by Mike Thibault, the three-time WNBA Coach of the Year who retired after the 2022 season. He won Olympic gold as an assistant on the 2008 and 2024 Team USA squads, and now he’s tasked with catching up to (and potentially toppling) the legacy he helped build.