With professional athletes quarantined at home as the coronavirus outbreak has paused most sports leagues, many have taken to Instagram Live to connect with fans.
A few have used the platforms to tell stories, like about the time Carmelo Anthony almost drowned and was saved by LeBron James.
Saturday night, athletic power couple Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird shared a funny story of their own from early in their relationship where the United States women’s national soccer team captain learned a valuable lesson about trying to keep up with WNBA superstars while drinking.
Bird sets the scene of when Rapinoe first met some of her friends on a vacation to Hawaii. The group included Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor, and the chardonnay was flowing.
“First of all, I’m small,” Rapinoe interjected. “There could be, in our family, an allergy to alcohol. I don’t know.”
The long flight over included at least four glasses for each, which affected 5-foot-6 Rapinoe a little differently than the basketball players she was with.
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“From noon until like 9 p.m. that night we get there, we have the chardonnays, we’re excited, we’re drinking,” Bird said. “It’s vacation, drinks, Diana is doing the pours. Strong pours. That’s a Russia pour.
“I’m not going to bore you with the details, but we find out later that (Rapinoe) left dinner to go to the bathroom a couple times to throw up. One time she threw up in a plant.”
Rapinoe corrected her.
“I wish it was in a plant, it was in the foyer heading to the bathroom.”
Rapinoe ended up passed out on the bathroom floor while the rest of the group continued their night, and she learned the hard way that it’s hard to outdrink the women who play basketball for the University of Connecticut.
“Well I was trying to keep up with you and D, that was a (expletive) disaster,” Rapinoe said. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
Bird ended the story with a little advice that we’re not sure UConn coach Geno Auriemma would be happy about — at least publicly.
“I’m just going to say this right now for anyone asking, you can’t drink with UConn players,” Bird said. “It’s something about how they recruit us. It’s like in our DNA.”
