Taurasi retires after 20 WNBA seasons
Published
Diana Taurasi has played her last game.
The 42-year-old Phoenix Mercury icon announced her retirement after 20 WNBA seasons in an interview with Time.
“I just didn’t have it in me,” Taurasi said. “That was pretty much when I knew it was time to walk away.”
A native of Glendale, CA, Taurasi ends her career with a host of WNBA records including most points all-time with 10,646.
The first overall pick of the 2004 WNBA Draft out of Connecticut where she was a three-time National Champion and two-time Naismith College Player of the Year, Taurasi finishes her career with 565 games played.
Over her two decades of WNBA action, Taurasi averaged 18.8 points on .400 shooting with 3.8 boards and 3.4 assists over 30.7 minutes a night.
The 2009 WNBA Most Valuable Player, Taurasi is a three-time WNBA Champion (2007, 2009 and 2014) and an 11-time All-Star. A five-time scoring champion, Taurasi was named to All-WNBA First Team on 10 occasions.
Outside of the WNBA, Taurasi won six EuroLeague titles and championships in both Russia and Turkey.
Internationally, Taurasi is a six-time Olympic gold medalist with the United States, including at Paris 2024, and a three-time world champion.
Asked if she is the greatest of all-time, Taurasi believes that one day her records will fall.
“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.”