Taurasi, champ in any respect ranges, retires from WNBA

Diana Taurasi, the main scorer in WNBA historical past and voted “biggest of all time” by the league’s followers, introduced her retirement Tuesday after 20 seasons.

“Mentally and bodily, I am simply full,” Taurasi informed Time journal. “That is in all probability one of the simplest ways I can describe it. I am full and I am blissful.”

Taurasi, 42, steps away as probably the most adorned gamers in basketball historical past. She made an impression from her first moments at UConn in 2000, and he or she was nonetheless within the highlight via the top of her WNBA profession, serving to lead the Phoenix Mercury to the playoffs this previous season.

In August, Taurasi grew to become the primary basketball participant to win six Olympic gold medals.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert hailed Taurasi as “one of many biggest rivals to ever play the sport of basketball on any stage.”

“In a record-setting profession that noticed her play 20 seasons, rating extra factors and make extra three-point pictures than any participant in WNBA historical past, she has earned the unquestioned respect of gamers across the globe, delivered electrifying moments and captivated followers time and again,” Engelbert mentioned in a ready assertion. “On behalf of the WNBA household, I thank Diana for every part that she has dropped at the WNBA — her ardour, her charisma and, most of all, her relentless dedication to the sport.”

Taurasi scored 10,646 factors — the one WNBA participant to surpass the 10K mark in scoring — in 565 regular-season video games, and he or she scored one other 1,476 factors in 72 playoff contests. She led Phoenix, which drafted her No. 1 in 2004, to WNBA championships in 2007, 2009 and 2014.

A five-time WNBA scoring champion and 14-time All-WNBA choice, Taurasi was league MVP in 2009 and Finals MVP in 2009 and 2014. She additionally leaves because the WNBA’s chief in 3-pointers made with 1,447 within the common season and 215 within the playoffs.

Josh Bartelstein, the chief government officer of the Mercury and Phoenix Suns, referred to as Taurasi “the face of the Mercury and ladies’s basketball for 20 years.”

“She revolutionized the sport along with her scoring means, infectious character and the sting she dropped at the court docket each evening,” Bartelstein mentioned. “There’ll solely ever be one Diana Taurasi, and she’s going to proceed to encourage us for years to return and stay a part of the material of this metropolis.”

Regardless of the non-public information and achievements, Taurasi was thought of the consummate teammate all through her profession.

“I’ve at all times tried to be on everybody’s aspect, and tried to champion everybody on the group,” Taurasi mentioned. “In the event that they’re in your circle, you handle them.”

Sue Chook, Taurasi’s longtime pal and UConn/USA Basketball teammate, mentioned to ESPN: “She has a manner of creating folks really feel related to her, but additionally like the most effective model of themselves.”

New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, who guided the Mercury for eight years, mentioned Taurasi had what appeared like a sixth sense in coping with teammates.

“She is aware of when she must take over; she is aware of when to get others concerned,” Brondello mentioned. “She is aware of when she simply must whisper of their ear to get them going. Whenever you see it up shut and private, you understand simply the impact she has on her teammates, and so they all look as much as her.”

Taurasi first rose to nationwide prominence at UConn twenty years in the past, main the Huskies to a few consecutive nationwide titles from 2002 to 2004, together with an undefeated season that many contemplate the best in ladies’s faculty hoops historical past.

In a ready assertion Tuesday, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma mentioned that Taurasi “had as a lot to do with altering ladies’s basketball as anybody who’s ever performed the sport.”

“In my view, what the greats have in frequent is, they transcend the game and turn out to be synonymous with the game,” Auriemma mentioned. “For so long as folks speak about faculty basketball, WNBA basketball, Olympic basketball: Diana is the best winner within the historical past of basketball, interval. I’ve had the pleasure of being round her for lots of these moments, and he or she’s the best teammate I’ve ever coached. I am blissful for her and her household. On the similar time, I am unhappy that I will by no means get to see her play once more, however I noticed greater than most.”

UConn went 22-1 in NCAA match video games in Taurasi’s profession, and he or she completed her collegiate profession with 2,156 factors, 628 rebounds and 648 assists. After being chosen No. 1 by the Mercury, she gained the primary of her Olympic medals in 2004.

Her first WNBA championship with Phoenix got here three years later.

After main Phoenix to its second title, Taurasi was arrested for driving below the affect in July 2009. Shortly afterward, whereas she was taking part in abroad in Turkey, Taurasi acquired a provisional ban in late 2010 for alleged use of the stimulant modafinil, however the lab conducting the take a look at was discredited, and Taurasi was cleared of all allegations in February 2011.

Taurasi and Chook grew to become the cornerstones of USA Basketball for twenty years. Alongside along with her Olympic haul, Taurasi has three golds from the FIBA Girls’s World Cup and gained six EuroLeague titles.

“There by no means appears to be a foul day once you’re round Dee,” mentioned Carol Callan, longtime USA Basketball ladies’s nationwide group director. “She does not search the limelight, and he or she’s completely snug in her pores and skin not needing it.”

Taurasi was voted by followers because the WNBA’s “GOAT” throughout the league’s twenty fifth season in 2021.

“To me, she’s the best participant,” mentioned Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who performed and coached towards Taurasi. “She simply hooped. I believe probably the most underrated components of her sport was her passing. Her 3-ball and pull-up jumpers received a lot consideration, however she actually does every part.

“It is like once you speak about LeBron James. … Some folks would knock on him when he would cross the ball, but it surely was the precise resolution. Nice gamers, the GOATs, simply make the precise play. And so they make it over and over and over, and it results in successful.”