Diana Taurasi’s legacy can be measured in the many titles she won, the many years she played or the many, many, many technical fouls she collected.
Just know she won’t spend one second worrying about it.
‘You don’t get to decide your legacy. You actually have to do stuff, and then it’s up for the people who watched and followed and loved the game. It’s their prerogative,’ Taurasi told USA TODAY Sports. “I know what I did, and I feel full with the game of basketball. I’m full and happy right now.”
Taurasi made official Tuesday night what had long been suspected: One of the best to ever play the game is retiring. She leaves as a three-time WNBA champion, a three-time NCAA champion and a six-time Olympic champion, her influence on the game unquantifiable.
Taurasi’s initial announcement came in an interview with TIME magazine.
‘There are athletes that are transcendent, who transcend women’s sports. Diana was one of the originals for that,” Phoenix Mercury president Vince Kozar told USA TODAY Sports. “I remember (early in Taurasi’s WNBA career) being in airports with her, and there were people who knew exactly who she was. They knew she went to UConn, they knew the bun.
‘Even if they didn’t know her name, they knew her and they knew her game.”
The game. That’s what it’s always been about for Taurasi. The game and only the game.
Taurasi was both a magician and an assassin on the floor. She whipped passes that opponents — and sometimes her own teammates — couldn’t see coming and had even less chance defending. She could score from anywhere, from any angle, leaving opponents slack-jawed and deflated.
You think Caitlin Clark jacking up 3s from the logo is fun to watch? Taurasi was Clark before Clark even picked up a basketball.
Mostly, though, Taurasi was a competitor. It didn’t matter if it was practice, a pickup game or winner-take-all for a title. She wanted to win and she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything get in her way.
After UConn lost in the Final Four her freshman year, Taurasi famously vowed the Huskies wouldn’t lose another tournament game while she was there, and then made good on her promise. And when the Mercury lost the 2021 WNBA Finals to the Chicago Sky, a locker room door bore the brunt of her frustrations.
“All I did,” Taurasi said, “was play as hard as I could.”
It was no different than what Michael Jordan and LeBron James had done. But her fierceness and the authenticity behind it was something we hadn’t really seen in women athletes before Taurasi. She spoke her mind without caring about the consequences, whether she was calling out inequities, analyzing a game or making fun of UConn coach Geno Auriemma. She enjoyed being the villain, knowing it was the ultimate sign of respect.
That, in turn, allowed other women to own their greatness in a way they previously hadn’t.
The trash talking from Clark and Angel Reese? The barking at refs by Kelsey Plum? The demand by W players that the league and team owners treat them like athletes and not charity projects? The celebration of love and marriage and family in all its forms? There’s a direct throughline from Taurasi to all that.
Not that Taurasi ever planned on being a disruptor. It just happened to be the byproduct of her passion for the game.
“I lived the dream. I got to do the thing that I love the most, and I’ve learned so much about myself and other people and how to improve as a teammate and as a human being,” Taurasi said.
Ask Taurasi what she’s most proud of, and she won’t mention the titles or the gains for women athletes or even being the WNBA’s logo. (The W has never confirmed this, but come on. The silhouette, the shooting motion, the bun? It’s obvious.)
Instead, Taurasi points to spending her entire WNBA career in Phoenix and suiting up for Team USA every time she was asked.
‘She always answered the call. That, to me, is the lasting impact. She always showed up,” Kozar said.
At 42, Taurasi can still play — and play at a high level. Her 36 games last year were the most she played in her 20-year WNBA career, and only Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper averaged more minutes for the Mercury. And that was on top of the Paris Olympics!
Taurasi was Phoenix’s third-leading scorer at 14.9 points a game last season, and she dropped 21 points on the Minnesota Lynx in Game 1 of the playoffs.
But the older a player gets, the more important offseason work becomes. And as the day she’d have to start that work got closer earlier this year, Taurasi realized she no longer wanted to commit to that grind.
‘It wasn’t a decision I took lightly. But … knowing that I was going to have to give myself a bit of a deadline to start really ramping up and prepping, that was kind of the moment where I knew I was probably done,” she said.
She also knew because of a conversation she and her wife, Penny Taylor, had when Taylor retired in 2016.
Taurasi recalled asking Taylor if she was worried about life after basketball or apprehensive at giving up something that’s been your life for so long, and Taylor saying no.
‘She was just so ready, and I think that’s where I’m at right now,” Taurasi said. ‘I’m just ready. I’m ready for whatever’s next.”
What that is, she doesn’t know yet. She wants to stay involved in basketball, though doesn’t see herself coaching. She’s looking forward to downtime with Taylor and their two young children.
And sooner rather than later, she’ll return to the Footprint Center to see her number retired and her jersey hung from the rafters. Five years from now, she’ll be a first-ballot inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
‘She just really, really wanted to play basketball,’ Kozar said, ‘and do it the right way.”
Because she did, the game has changed for the better. That is Taurasi’s legacy.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
