COLLEGE PARK, GA – AUGUST 21: Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi (3) reacts during a WNBA game between the Phoenix Mercury and the Atlanta Dream at Gateway Arena in College Park, Georgia on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
If 2024 is Diana Taurasi’s last year on the court, perhaps her greatest accomplishment will be that she has taken the WNBA to new heights. Without her as a role model for young players around the world, the league’s popularity would not have grown to where it is today.
You can’t talk about the history of the WNBA without mentioning Taurasi. In fact, she’s arguably its pivotal figure.
One thing is for sure, she was the most entertaining person.
The inexplicable shot-making with the clock running out, the defining playoff moments that led the Phoenix Mercury to three championships in eight years, the raw emotion that made her one of the WNBA’s fiercest competitors and also allowed her to go toe-to-toe with the officials on a nightly basis.
The regular season victories, the heartbreaking defeats, the championship comebacks and the uncontrollable screams to the away crowd after those title-winning points will all be etched in our minds for decades to come. Those memories will serve as inspiration for the next generation of superstar basketball players looking to emulate her success.
It’s not set in stone that Taurasi will retire after the playoffs, but that seems highly likely.
The atmosphere at the Footprint Center was unique these past two weeks. Players, coaches, announcers and even Taurasi’s family erupted in emotion. They weren’t going to waste the opportunity to pay tribute to her storied career and express just how much she meant to the Phoenix community.
No one would blame her if she ever decided to retire. She’s already given fans memories that will live on in the city’s culture forever. Her name and silhouette will remain on the practice court at Phoenix’s new $100 million facility, which owner Matt Ishbia opened in July.
But if this is indeed all there is to it, it will be up to her to decide how and when.
An 11-time All-Star, six-time gold medalist and three-time WNBA champion, Taurasi had earned the right to retire on her own terms. She didn’t want to dominate the news an entire season and she wasn’t interested in a “retirement tour” that would pressure opponents and fans to shower her with praise on the road.
It wouldn’t be the selfless style that her career has embodied since 2004, nor would it be the real Diana Taurasi that her current and former teammates love and admire. Between her Mercury career and international matches, she’s shared the court with 210 teammates since turning pro, and she’s found a way to impact all of them.
Not only is she an impeccable vocal leader, but her work is also superb.
Taurasi has scored 12,101 career points, including playoff appearances, 3,540 more than the next most points scored by former teammate DeWanna Bonner. In terms of career regular season appearances, Taurasi holds the NBA record for points, free throws and three-pointers made.
If this is all there is to it, Diana Taurasi’s 20-year career has been amazing from start to finish.
Regular Season Stats
She helped the Mercuries win 310 regular season games and had a combined goal differential of 1,159 points in 565 games.
The most impressive of the three championships came in 2014, when Taurasi led the Mercury to a 36-6 overall record, including the playoffs. During that regular season, she set the WNBA record for the highest individual point differential (also known as plus-minus). With Taurasi on the court, Phoenix outscored opponents by 387 points, which equates to 20 points per 100 possessions. Not even Maya Moore, considered by many to be the most talented player of all time, has ever achieved that mark in a season.
Taurasi’s point differential record has since been broken, and the Las Vegas Aces had four players surpass 400 points during their historic run last season.
If Taurasi wants to keep working hard and take her unmatched longevity record to the next level, she absolutely can. There’s no question about it. At 42 years old, she just played 1,000 minutes in a season for the first time since 2014. She’s averaging nearly 15 quality points per game, the lowest turnover rate of her career and shooting well in the paint.
But it’s just a matter of how much of a training and recovery process she’s willing to endure.
“There are days when I feel like I can still do it,” she said. “I still want to play basketball, but then there are days when I just can’t bring myself to get out of bed. I think when you get to this stage in your career, there are struggles. You have so much work to do to get back on the court. It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways. I think I’ll have a better idea of what my future holds once the season is over.”
After all this time, she has nothing left to prove: She’s already the Tom Brady of the WNBA, a queen of longevity whose extraordinary IQ and time-honored tact have made her a constant presence on the court.
But it’s hard to imagine she wants to have a reduced role, especially with a team where she is the face of the team. Taurasi has started all 565 games in her career and has never come off the bench.
Perhaps more impressive than her two decades as a professional athlete is the fact that she did it in the Valley. From start to finish, Taurasi was a fixture in Phoenix basketball and the most accomplished player to ever grace the city.
“I have so many great memories in this building,” she says. “To me, this city is like no other. It’s home now. It’s so wonderful to see the young people who came here in 2004 who are now married, have families and run their own businesses. I’ve watched them grow up, and they’ve watched me grow up.”
Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi smiles as she cheers on the crowd during the final moments of the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Seattle Storm, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Her talent, career trajectory and on-court demeanor are reminiscent of another West Coast legend who spent two decades in the same uniform: It was Kobe Bryant who called Taurasi the “White Mamba” a few years before his death, likening her dominant run with the Mercury to his storied Lakers career from 1996-2016. He was in attendance the day Taurasi broke the WNBA’s all-time scoring record in Los Angeles, and cited her work ethic, consistency and genuine love for what she does as traits he wants his daughters to emulate.
As Taurasi noted Thursday, she’s proud to be in the same conversation as Bryant from a loyalty standpoint.
“Kobe set the standard of being in the same place for 20 years,” she said, “and you could probably pick any number of people who’ve played for the same team for that long. It’s not easy to be in the same place for 20 years. It’s a long relationship with ups and downs, compromises, not liking this, not liking that. But at the end of the day, this franchise has always supported me through my ups and downs.”
Their similarities are strong: Bryant’s perseverance was undoubtedly tested in Los Angeles, where the roster construction was less than ideal, and things weren’t always smooth sailing for Taurasi during his time with the Mercury, but that didn’t stop either man from persevering and refusing to leave in search of better situations.
Also, both of them have a special type of leadership style where they don’t hide anything and communicate it.
Taurasi believed in all of her teammates, pushed them to reach their potential, and she did whatever it took to unleash their inner beast, even if that meant challenging them or giving them some tough love.
Last week, after the Mercury celebrated their 2014 championship team, I asked longtime teammate Brittney Griner what stood out to her about Taurasi’s evolution as a leader over the years.
“I feel like she was already leading the team when I first got here,” Griner said. “I always called her the commander on the court. She sees everything. Eyes for the game, eyes for every position. She gives us little bits of advice that we try to absorb all the time. Over the years, she’s gotten better and better. When she says something, you can see everyone’s focused. When she comes on the sideline or talks to the group, it gets our attention.”
She is more than a leader on the court.
Forget what type of player she is, there was no need to worry that “Dee,” as everyone calls her, wouldn’t stand for the team, including the rookies and younger players who needed guidance.
“That’s the Dee way,” Griner added, “and having her beside me mentoring me is something I’ve always treasured because I was young and naive and had a lot to learn, and I credit a lot of that to Dee.”
USA’s No. 15 Brittney Griner (left) and No. 12 Diana Taurasi leave the court after the women’s basketball qualifying Group C match between Belgium and the USA for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Villeneuve d’Ascq, northern France, on August 1, 2024. (Samir Al Doumi/AFP) (Samir Al Doumi/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
This season did not play out the way Phoenix dreamed. A 19-21 record and a worse net rating than the 14-26 Washington Mystics was not what anyone expected, especially with the Mercury adding former champions Kalia Copper and Natasha Cloud. Projected to be an offensive giant, the Phoenix finished the season 8th (out of 12 teams) in points per possession, 7th in 3-point shooting percentage and 6th in turnover percentage. They were unable to reach their limits and live up to the high expectations placed upon them.
The Mercury enter the playoffs with bitter feelings after losing seven of their final 10 regular-season games, but they’ll need an upset in the first round to make up for it. Their first two games on the road against the No. 2-seeded Minnesota Lynx will be tough for the Mercury. Minnesota is led by forward Napheesa Collier, the AP Defensive Player of the Year, and AP Coach of the Year Cheryl Reeve, who led Team USA to another gold medal in Paris.
A road win will be a tall order for Phoenix, and if they can’t, Taurasi won’t be able to return to his home crowd before a final decision is made.
Perhaps she hasn’t quite made up her mind yet, and even if her magnum opus isn’t finished yet, she clearly still has some juice left.
Plus, we know how the most psychopathic athletes behave: the greatest of all time often invent little jolts of motivation out of nowhere, or trick themselves into thinking they can do more.
Perhaps she’s remembering the 2012 season when a hip flexor strain limited her to just eight games, or the 2019 season when she missed 28 games because of back and hamstring injuries.
That may be unlikely, but maybe there’s a universe in which Taurasi can convince himself that the shortened season means he still has something to contribute.
And depending on how the Mercury performs in the 2024 playoffs, there could be some unfinished business for a team with title aspirations.
“As an athlete, you think the outcome is up to you,” she laughed, “but the outcome just happens. I’m just focused on what we need to do to get this team to the playoffs, because we have the power to do that.”
