Diana Taurasi’s legacy, through her eyes and those who know her best

The night was dedicated to Taurasi, with the Phoenix Mercury promoting the game with the phrase “If this is it.”

At the time, no one knew if the 42-year-old veteran would return for her 21st season. Postgame, Taurasi sat alone at the podium. Of the 10 or so questions she fielded, not a single one pertained to the result of the game she had just played in. 

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Instead, she sat in front of a microphone, flashing her warm smile, reminiscing on her career that spanned two decades, and expressing her own uncertainty about the future of her WNBA career.

“There’s still days where I’m like, I can still do this,” Taurasi told the media then. “I still want to play basketball. And then there’s the flip side, where there are days where I’m crawling out of bed, and that’s, I guess, a struggle you have when you get to this point in your career. You have to do so much to be able to get back on the court, and it’s bittersweet in a lot of ways.”

Tuesday, Taurasi announced her decision to the public. That game was indeed her last in Phoenix. There was no more if. That was it.

At 5 p.m. ET, the sports world came to a halt. Taurasi announced her retirement via an extensive piece in TIME Magazine that took a trip through every twist and turn of her basketball career from start to finish. In the piece, Taurasi reveals that she made up her mind on Jan. 1.

She retires not only as the face of the Phoenix Mercury but also as arguably the face of the WNBA and women’s basketball internationally.

For over two decades, she pushed women’s basketball to new heights and new levels of popularity and recognition. She became a household name and brought the WNBA along with her.

“I’m really grateful to have been in this league for 20 years, and like anything, you want to leave it better than when you came,” Taurasi told media Sept. 17. “Just with the energy of where we’re at in women’s sports and basketball, it seems to just keep climbing and climbing, and that’s what you want, as a former player, a current player, and for the future generation too.”

The 14-time All-WNBA player, 11-time All-Star, three-time WNBA Champion, six-time Olympic Gold medalist and WNBA all-time leading scorer will be remembered as one of, if not the greatest player in WNBA and women’s basketball history.

“She is one of one. She is the goat of our game,” then-Phoenix Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham told media during the team’s postseason interviews. “She has one of the biggest hearts that I’ve ever been around, and just her intelligence, not only for basketball but in life, is phenomenal.”

Taurasi’s journey to becoming one of the sport’s all-time greats began in 1999 when she committed to UConn in the fall of her senior year of high school. The California native took a big chance moving from one coast to the other to play for one of the most historic NCAA programs and one of the most legendary coaches in Geno Auriemma. However, that wasn’t the program’s identity when she signed on. It’s the legacy she helped build in her four years in Storrs.

When Taurasi joined the team, the Huskies were coming off their second-ever NCAA Championship in 2000. In her freshman season, Taurasi led the Huskies to the Final Four before being knocked out by the eventual champions, Notre Dame.

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Instead of experiencing a sophomore slump, Taurasi returned with a vengeance in the 2001-02 season. The Huskies entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and proved their dominance every step of the way. Their determination resulted in another national title. Individually, Taurasi earned All-American honors from the Associated Press (second team) and the WBCA. 

UConn’s 2002 championship was the first of three consecutive NCAA titles and the start of the UConn dynasty as it is known today. Taurasi finished her career as a two-time NCAA Tournament Most Oustanding Player, three-time AP All-American, two-time Naismith Award winner and the 2003 AP Player of the Year, in addition to being a three-time national champion.

Throughout her time at UConn, Taurasi and Auriemma built a strong relationship that still stands to this day. He, along with several prominent UConn alumni who played with Taurasi, made the trip to Phoenix for her final home game on Sept. 19.

“Coach [Auriemma] means the world to me,” Taurasi said. “I got to Connecticut as an 18-year-old that didn’t really know much, but thought she knew a lot. And he quickly told me I didn’t, and he let me know that every day because he knew if I could just scratch the surface of where he thought I could go, something special could happen.”

“It’s hard to put into words, it really is, what this means,” Auriemma said in a statement released by UConn on Tuesday. “When someone’s defined the game, when someone’s had such an impact on so many people and so many places. You can’t define it with a quote. It’s a life that is a novel, it’s a movie, it’s a miniseries, it’s a saga. It’s the life of an extraordinary person who, I think, had as much to do with changing women’s basketball as anyone who’s ever played the game.”

Due to all she accomplished in college and all the athletic prowess she displayed in her four years at UConn, the Phoenix Mercury selected Taurasi with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft. With the selection of Taurasi, the Mercury ushered in a new era defined by Taurasi’s elite scoring and playmaking abilities.

The addition of Taurasi helped the Mercury improve from a measly 8-26 record in 2003 to a respectable 17-17 in 2004. Although the Mercury missed the playoffs, the WNBA named Taurasi the Rookie of the Year. She also finished third in MVP voting and was named to the All-WNBA first team.

Over the next few years, the Mercury continued to improve and Taurasi continued playing like the star she was, tacking on three more All-WNBA designations and three All-Star selections between 2005 and 2007. In 2006, Taurasi led the league in scoring for the first time in her career.

2007 was the year everything came together for the Mercury. In the first playoffs of her career, Taurasi, along with the other members of Phoenix’s Big 3, took the Mercury all the way to the Finals where they won their first-ever WNBA title.

Since then, Taurasi hasn’t looked back. Two years later, the Mercury won another title, with Taurasi, the 2009 league MVP, also winning Finals MVP. Each year from 2008-2011 she led the league in scoring, averaging 22.2 points per game over the four-year span.

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Year after year, Taurasi continued to maintain her status as one of the league’s best players. In 2014, Taurasi’s 10th season, she won her third WNBA championship and her second WNBA Finals MVP award. The Mercury dominated the entire season, winning a record 29 games.

“[Diana] is special to me,” former Mercury center Brittney Griner, who won the 2014 championship with Taurasi, said in her postseason interview. “What she’s done, she should be special to everybody. Obviously, what she’s done for this league and women’s basketball, how she plays, day in, day out, the amount that she gives of herself for us, it’s incredible. On the court, off the court, there’s no other. There’s only one DT, and I feel bad for the people that didn’t get to see her play. They missed out on greatness.”

Taurasi remained at the top of her game even as the early 2010s turned to the late 2010s and her early 30s turned to her late 30s. In 2017, she passed Tina Thompson and became the league’s all-time leading scorer. At age 36 in 2018, Taurasi still managed to finish the year with her seventh 20-point-per-game season. 

Season after season, Taurasi reached some new milestone and attached another first to her name. She’s first all-time in 3-pointers, field goals and free throws made. She’s fourth on the all-time assists list and second in total games played.

Even though other notable names from Taurasi’s draft class – Alana Beard, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson – had called it quits by the turn of the decade, Taurasi played on. Her longevity was incomprehensible, as some of her late-career numbers rivaled those from the first few seasons of her career.

In 2023, Taurasi reached her own personal Mount Everest: 10,000 points. She reminded fans that she still had it, going for 42 points on the historic night. The sports world tuned in and gave Taurasi her much-deserved flowers for firmly establishing her spot in a league of her own. She finishes her career with 10,646 total points, just under 3,000 points ahead of Tina Charles who is second on the all-time scoring list.

At every step in her career, Taurasi was a fierce competitor wanting the best for herself and those around her. It was never difficult to get Taurasi fired up on the floor, and more than a few refs and opposing players caught their fair share of her ire. Taurasi is the league’s all-time leader in personal fouls with 1,735. DeLisha Milton-Jones resides in second with over 160 fewer fouls than Taurasi. No active player appears in the top 10.

In 2024, Taurasi tied for third in technical fouls, having been assigned six – a seventh that would have tied her for first was rescinded. According to Across the Timeline, she has a career total of 107 technical fouls, averaging 5.4 per season.

Despite her fiery on-court demeanor, Taurasi was known for her light-hearted and likable personality around the league. For as much as she did for the sport of women’s basketball she also did for her teammates and coaches who seldom hold back when talking about the positive impacts Taurasi’s had on their lives on and off the court.

“When you are her teammate, I’ve been her teammate for six years now, you just see how big her heart is,” Cunningham said. “She loves hard. She’s one of the most intelligent people that I’ve ever been around, and my biggest thing is that she really does have a huge heart, not only for this game but for people, for life. … I’m just so excited for whenever she chooses to step away from the game that she has a lot ahead of her. She is a one-of-a-kind.”

Taursi’s fire on the court is reminiscent of one of her greatest inspirations, the late Kobe Bryant. Taurasi’s nickname, the White Mamba, is derived from his iconic moniker of the Black Mamba.

Growing up in southern California, Diana Taurasi followed Bryant and the Lakers. As she started down her own path, she and Bryant became peers, developing a personal relationship. She spoke at his memorial hosted by the Lakers following his death in 2020. Through the White Mamba alias, Taurasi continued his legacy on the women’s side.

“Obviously, growing up [in California] and watching the Sparks and the Lakers when I was a young kid, it’s why I fell in love with basketball,” Taurasi told media after playing her final game in Los Angeles. 

“I just have one memory [in Crypto.com Arena], and that’s saying goodbye to Kobe. That’s a big reason why I approach the game the way I do. I saw him do it from far away, from close, at the beginning of his career, in the middle, at the end, it didn’t matter. And that, to me, is going to be always the biggest moment in this building. It succeeds any basket, any win that’s been in my career.”

While Taurasi dominated the other women in the WNBA, she also dominated international competition. Every four years, the Olympics weaved its way into the WNBA schedule. Beginning with her rookie season in 2004, Taurasi made every USA Basketball Olympic team.

Playing for Team USA reunited Taurasi with Auriemma for a six-year span in which the pair won two Olympic gold medals together.

In all, Taurasi is a six-time Olympian and a record six-time Olympic gold medalist. She was named USA Basketball’s Female Athlete of the Year four times. In each of her gold medal pursuits, Taurasi and Team USA never lost a game. With how storied Taurasi’s international career is, it’s only fitting that she had the opportunity to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the final year of her career.

“At the end of the day, you have to enjoy what you’re doing and we’ve always kept the main thing, the main thing,” Taurasi said to media Team USA availability during WNBA All-Star Weekend. “But we’ve always enjoyed the moment, whether it’s in the locker room, whether it’s opening ceremonies, we’ve always kept perspective on why we’re there. Number one, to win the gold medal, at the same time to represent our country and enjoy the moment because you never know if you get another opportunity to do so.”

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Back in the United States, Taurasi may not have gotten the farewell tour that many fans feel she deserved, but the Mercury took the time to honor Taurasi at every chance they could. When the team unveiled its new practice facility during the All-Star break, the courts were named in her honor.

This is no surprise given how much of an impact Taurasi has had on the franchise since the start of her career in 2004. She’s played every game of her WNBA career in a Mercury jersey.

“In 30 years, people [will] still remember Diana Taurasi on the practice court and her work ethic, her attitude,” owner Mat Ishbia said at the facility’s grand opening. “She’s one of the hardest-working players of all time. And so having it here in the practice facility that matters.”

Taurasi was also instrumental in helping the Mercury build a culture in Phoenix, one that first-year head coach Nate Tibbetts was eager to be a part of. Having the opportunity to coach a player as iconic as Taurasi is not one for any coach to take lightly, especially one in his first season in a brand-new environment. Still, she was an asset, who helped Tibbetts learn and grow in year one.

“Coming into a new league, new team, what a wonderful opportunity for me, personally, to get to coach her,” Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts told media Sept. 15. “So I’m super thankful. If this is it, she’s lived up to all expectations from what I’ve heard just about her competitive spirit, her work, her approach. It’s second to none.”

Taurasi’s resume includes so many records and so many achievements that no other player may ever come close to matching, let alone breaking. 

It won’t be easy for the league or the Mercury to fill the Taurasi-sized hole in the locker room. She helped take the franchise from relative obscurity to the top of the WNBA in the time she spent in the Valley. She created a legacy for the team and herself that resides among the few Arizona sports teams to win it all in their respective league.

“Diana has been the face of the Mercury and women’s basketball for 20 years,” Phoenix Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein said Tuesday. “She revolutionized the game with her scoring ability, infectious personality and the edge she brought to the court every night. There will only ever be one Diana Taurasi, and she will continue to inspire us for years to come and remain part of the fabric of this city.”

“I’ve built a life here [in Phoenix],” Taurasi said. “I built a family, a home. This place has given me so many amazing relationships that I’ll take with me forever. … I’ll always be a part of this franchise. I’ll always be cheering it on. I’ll always be a part of it through the wins and the losses. And I’m going to feel what the X-Factor feels every single night when they come to this arena expecting a show. That’s the beauty of playing here, and that’s a standard we’ve set in the last 20 years, trying to win a championship every single year.”

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What Taurasi has done for women’s basketball can’t be quantified or defined by one single metric. Her mark on the sport can never be erased. Her reputation can’t be altered or tainted. She is one of the greats and that title can never be taken away from her.

“In my opinion, what the greats have in common is, they transcend the sport and become synonymous with the sport,” Auriemma said. “For as long as people talk about college basketball, WNBA basketball, Olympic basketball: Diana is the greatest winner in the history of basketball, period. I’ve had the pleasure of being around her for a lot of those moments, and she’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever coached. I’m happy for her and her family. At the same time, I’m sad that I’ll never get to see her play again, but I saw more than most.”