In her 20th season, Diana Taurasi’s longevity is legendary

“I could have never imagined playing for 20 years,” Taurasi told reporters Friday. “This league is hard. For a long time we played year round — [it] takes a toll on you physically and mentally. But thinking back on it — 20 years and all of them here in Phoenix, that feels really good.”

Taurasi has been playing in the WNBA for the last 20 years, all with the Phoenix Mercury, and has a stacked resume dating back to her college days at UConn. She led the Mercury to three league championships, won an Olympic basketball record six gold medals, a 2009 WNBA MVP award and six EuroLeague Women’s titles.

Adding to her legacy, Taurasi is the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history and one of the best trash talkers. The city of Phoenix named a street after her and the Mercury dedicated its new practice courts to her legacy.

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Legendary NBA players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry have long been mentioned for their longevity. Taurasi’s close friend Sue Bird, the all-time leader in WNBA assists, played 20 years in the league with the Seattle Storm.

“This is a generation that lived through the early 2000s,” Taurasi said. “Maximizing every single year … obviously Sue Bird on our end, Tina Thompson and Chris Paul. These are people who played into their late 30s and 40s. They’re not hockey players. It’s just a generation that has really tapped into the nutrition side, the rest side, the strength and conditioning side to really push the limits on how long you can play.”

This season, Taurasi is averaging 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while appearing in 34 games with the Mercury, who are headed to the playoffs as the seventh seed and will face the second seed Minnesota Lynx in a best-of-three first round series.

When it comes to her longevity, Taurasi credits her decision to adapt to a vegan diet in 2015.

“My diet’s changed, [I have] different things to get ready for the game,” Taurasi said. “When you get a little bit older, you got to do some other things to make sure you stay on the court. And it’s an everyday grind. It’s something that you do daily, and consistency is always one thing that I’ve always tried to master. So it’s just little things in doing them every day.”

When Nate Tibbetts accepted the head coaching position with the Phoenix Mercury last October, he wanted to teach his two daughters who the role models in women’s sports are.

“From a distance, [Taurasi had] an unbelievable career — [she is the] greatest of all time,” Tibbetts told The Next. “She’s a big reason why I wanted to take this job, to be able to tell my daughters that I got to coach her.”

“Her commitment to the work is second to none,” Tibbetts said. “She’s in love with the grind of it; she likes the competition and the games, but her daily approach is unmatched. No one’s done what she’s doing at this age, and it’s a commitment to her body. It’s a commitment to getting her shots up. It’s [the willingness] to do things that others aren’t.”

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Hannah Wengertsman is in her fifth season with the Phoenix Mercury as a head athletic trainer and has been impressed with Taurasi’s mindset since she began her role in 2020.

“Fortunately, Diana makes my job easy because she’s really committed to putting in the work it takes to play at this high level,” Wengertsman told The Next. “And that’s why her career has been as long as it is, because she’s really committed to the work that it takes. She’s the first one in the gym every morning and one of the last ones to leave, because she really prioritizes taking care of her body.

“So that may start with treatment first thing in the morning, into her lift and activation, getting some extra shots up on the court, and then post practice taking care of all she needs to do to recover and be ready for the next day. So I really admire her ability to put in the work day in and out to be ready to stay on the court.”

During the Mercury’s win over the Chicago Sky on Sunday, Taurasi scored 25 points and had six assists — the 24th game in which she’s scored 20 or more points at age 40 or older.

“It’s funny, because someone told me the other day, LeBron [James] is turning 40 soon,” Taurasi said. “I guess that record is gonna be broken pretty quickly, but it’s just consistency. Everyone always asks me, ‘Why do you still play?’ And I say, ‘Because I like doing it every single day.’ And that’s not to say you’re going to have a great night every single time you touch the court.

“[It] doesn’t matter if you’re 20, 30 or 40, but I love the grind of doing it every single day. And that is one thing I tell my teammates and anyone in any profession — is that consistency is what sets you apart, not your talent or your opportunity; it’s your consistency.”

Taurasi continues to put in the work on and off the court to keep her body ready.

“It’s not super common to find an athlete who’s so consistent [with] putting in that amount of work every single day,” Wengertsman said. “Outside of practice, she’s probably putting in two to three hours of additional work to keep her body ready. And not every athlete is like that, so she’s a special kind of human to being open to wanting to put in that work. Anything I ask her to do, she’s going to do. And that’s what makes my job so easy because [it’s] really easy to get her to do the things we ask her to do.”

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After the Mercury secured a second-straight victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on the road on Tuesday, Taurasi spoke in postgame about the importance of consistency for athletes to maintain long lasting careers.

“It’s an everyday grind like anything in life,” Taurasi said. “If you want to have success and longevity, there’s no magic tricks. It’s just being consistent at the little things every single day and in saying that there’s ups and downs; but if you can come back the next day and do it again, that’s what sets you apart in any field, and especially in sports.”

Tibbetts has held positions as an assistant coach across the NBA and was fortunate to coach some veterans later in their careers.

“I was lucky enough to get to coach some guys at the end of their career, not at this age,” Tibbetts said. “I got to coach Carmelo Anthony at the end of his career in Portland, I got to coach Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker at the end of their careers in Cleveland. I’ve seen veteran players towards the end of their career as their games have evolved. All of them do it for just the opportunity to be around their teammates and continue to get better and prove people wrong.”

If Taurasi today were to advise her younger self as a rookie in 2004, she would emphasize the importance of experience and perseverance.

“I always look at it in the way where every experience molds who you are and you have to go through [it],” Taurasi said. “Let’s go to the good, the bad and the ugly. If you can pick yourself up and try to be better the next day, that’s what makes who you are at the end of the day. Those little moments don’t define who you are as a person or as a player — it’s how you react to them. It’s how it helps you become a better player, person, teammate, family member and citizen in this country. All those little moments add up who you are, so if anything, [it] gets more sweet.”

When Mercury center Brittney Griner started playing in her first season in Phoenix, she admired Taurasi’s leadership and credited her as a positive influence and impact on and off the court. Griner and Taurasi have been the mainstays of the organization since Griner joined as the No. 1 draft pick in 2013.

“When I first got here, she was already leading us. I always called her the floor general out on the court,” Griner said. “She sees everything — the way she sees the game, the way she sees it from every position as well. All those little nuggets she drops, we were always just trying to soak them in. Over the years, she has just gotten better at it. When she says something to you, you can just see how everyone is locked in. When she comes and talks to you on the side or to the group, she just grabs our attention.

“That is just [Diana]. That is something I always cherish, when she would coach me up in the side and help me out. I was young and naïve and needed to learn a lot. I credit a lot of that to Dee.”

Taurasi has been impressed with the evolution of the WNBA since she began playing two decades ago.

“It’s gone through an amazing journey,” Taurasi said on the state of the WNBA. “When this league started in 1997, every building was sold out for three straight years, and then, for whatever reason, it lost a little bit of its momentum. I’ve seen the ups, I’ve seen the downs. And right now this league is in a great place as far as attendance, coverage, on every social platform, being on TV — I think it’s in a place where it can only get better.”

“You always want to see it better, and that’s where it’s at right now.”