Megan Rapinoe on taking a knee: ‘White people were mad. Whew, were they mad’

In an extract from her new book, the USA World Cup winner talks about the outrage that followed her decision to support Colin Kaepernick and kneel during the national anthem

The first action I took was so discreet the only person who saw it was Sue [Bird]. To backtrack: after the Olympics, when we all got back to Seattle, Sue and I had met. It was a group dinner and the vibe was totally platonic, not least because Sera, my fiancee, was there. We discovered that day that Sue and I were due to play in Chicago for our respective teams during the same week in September and several weeks later I headed to the airport to meet my team.

At check-in, one of my teammates, who was dating a player on Sue’s WNBA team, turned to me and said: “Oh, I’m going to the basketball game tonight and have tick …” Before she could even finish I’d shouted: “I want to go.” I should’ve known then. Never in a million years would I land from a flight and drive 45 minutes to see someone else play and yet I found myself desperate to go. That night, I showed up for Sue’s game.