After having triumphed at every level of competition, from college to the WNBA to international play, Diana Taurasi is ending one of the best basketball careers ever. The 42-year-old announced her retirement on Tuesday through a sitdown interview with Time magazine.
Taurasi's success can be measured in any number of ways. The record books tell a story of individual offensive genius: WNBA all-time leader in points scored and threes made, five WNBA scoring titles, one MVP. There's also the story of longevity and team success: After the Phoenix Mercury drafted her out of UConn as the No. 1 overall pick in 2004, she played 20 seasons with them and led them to three championships. As the only women's basketball player to appear on six Olympic rosters, she won gold every time. In a time of low WNBA salaries, she spent some of her offseasons winning on a different continent, collecting six EuroLeague titles and bigger checks in Russia and Turkey.
It'd also be hard to miss Taurasi's stylistic imprint on the game. With her ability to create her own shots in isolation, her deep range from three, smooth ball-handling and snappy off-the-dribble passing, she laid the template for modern point guard play. Even throughout the eras where offenses were dominated by bigs and athletic wings operating in the paint, the 6-foot Taurasi was still cooking, still proving the value of a slick perimeter scorer, an identity that lives on in the likes of younger WNBA guards today.
Larger than her basketball was her persona: brash, funny, shit-talking, not shy about ego or competitive spirit. In many ways, she was built for an era whose fruits she will not quite get to enjoy. Attention, in both desirable and undesirable forms, has descended on women's basketball in recent years; Taurasi would've handled any undue scrutiny with a smirk and a barb. One highlight of her retirement announcement was a remembrance of a bygone diss. At the 2016 Olympics, while Team USA basketball players were hanging out on a cruise, she committed murder at sea: "Hey, Draymond, how does it feel to be the only person in this room who’s never been double-teamed?”
I'm reminded of another funny quote that Maitreyi Anatharaman cited in a past piece, from an Instagram Live session where a wine-influenced Taurasi spent time examining the upcoming WNBA draft. She began poking fun at the way reporters pose premature questions about legacy to young players. Taurasi's characteristically spicy counter to all that: "Bitch, you gotta fucking live something.” Over the past two decades, she certainly did that.
