Diana Taurasi, one of the most celebrated and accomplished basketball players in the sport’s history, is retiring.
Taurasi, 42, told Time Magazine on Tuesday she would be stepping away from the game and hanging up her sneakers after 20 years in the WNBA, reaching the pinnacle of the sport, shattering records and redefining women’s basketball.
A 3-time WNBA champion, one-time MVP, and 14-time All WNBA selection, Taurasi played her entire career with the Phoenix Mercury. She also had an equally impressive resume playing overseas during the league’s offseason.
She leaves the game having accomplished everything she set out to do.
“Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” Taurasi told Time. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”
Born in Glendale, Taurasi move to Chino when she was 8 and graduated from Don Antonio Lugo High School. After graduation, she committed to playing collegiately at the University of Connecticut under head coach Geno Auriemma, where she put together one of the greatest careers in the history of college athletics.
At UCONN, Taurasi was named the Associated Press Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year in 2003 and twice named the Naismith College Player of the Year en route to winning three NCAA Championships, two of which she was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
She was drafted first overall in the 2004 WNBA Draft to the Mercury and become the league’s all-time leading scorer in 2017.
“Thank you Diana for changing the game forever, all of the accolades could never amount to the type of person and edge you embodied when you stepped out there on the court,” the WNBA wrote on social media.
In addition to her collegiate and professional career, Taurasi is also a six-time Olympic Gold Medalist in basketball, more than any other person, man or woman.
Taurasi is widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest women’s basketball player of all time.
Now, ready to move into the next chapter of her life, Taurasi said she’s eager to see the next great women’s athlete accomplish even more, even if it means her name getting rewritten in the record books.
“My scoring record, or the six gold medals, someone’s going to come around that has the same hunger, the same addiction to basketball, and put those records in a different way, a different name,” Taurasi said. “That’s what sports is all about. That’s going to be fun to watch. Hopefully not soon.”
