Diana Taurasi, 6-time Olympic gold medalist and the WNBA’s prime scorer, will retire

Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury has introduced she’s going to retire. The six-time Olympic gold medalist can also be the WNBA’s all-time main scorer and a fan favourite.

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Christian Petersen/Getty Photos

Diana Taurasi, the Phoenix Mercury guard who at six ft tall was a large of U.S. women’s basketball for twenty years, has retired.

Taurasi, 42, made the announcement in an interview published Tuesday in TIME Magazine. “Mentally and bodily, I am simply full,” she informed TIME. “That is most likely one of the best ways I can describe it. I am full and I am joyful.”

Taurasi leaves the WNBA as maybe essentially the most adorned participant within the historical past of girls’s basketball. She was named Most Useful Participant in 2009 and was an All-Star 11 occasions. She led the Mercury to 3 WNBA titles, Workforce USA to six Olympic gold medals and her school crew, the UConn Huskies, to 3 NCAA championships. She was quickest to succeed in 5,000 profession factors and the one to succeed in 10,000. She stays the league’s all-time leading scorer.

Her retirement didn’t come solely as a shock. After the Mercury’s final residence sport final September, Taurasi took to the court docket to talk to followers as they chanted “another 12 months.”

“I need to thank each single coach, each single participant, each single person who’s placed on a WNBA jersey, as a result of it takes a village,” Taurasi mentioned then. “For everybody who performed earlier than this league was the place it’s now, we’re grateful for you guys. And we’re grateful for the following era.”

The WNBA had existed for under eight years earlier than Taurasi was drafted. Now, on the finish of her profession, the league — and sport — are in a far more healthy place. A median of 1.6 million viewers watched a thrilling Finals series between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx. A surge in attendance and a new media rights deal signed final 12 months have put extra money in groups’ pockets. Three new franchises are poised to affix the league within the subsequent two years.

“Diana Taurasi is likely one of the best opponents to ever play the sport of basketball on any stage,” mentioned WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a statement. “I thank Diana for every little thing that she has dropped at the WNBA — her ardour, her charisma and, most of all, her relentless dedication to the sport.”

Now, the league’s greatest younger star, Caitlin Clark, is a 23-year-old who as soon as thought of Taurasi her idol. Shortly after information broke, Clark posted information of Taurasi’s retirement on her Instagram with a one-word caption: “legend.”