Diana Taurasi has said goodbye.
Taurasi, the most accomplished, most important, most popular, most recognized, most prolific, most spectacular, most amazing, most you-name-it player in the history of women’s basketball, told Time magazine that when she thought about getting ready for another season, she realized, “I just didn’t have it in me.”
The announcement was anticlimactic. I’ve been begging for DT to come back, but I knew it was more likely that she’d trade her signature slicked-back bun for a set of box braids, her baggy shorts for a pair of hotpants. Anyone who closely follows women’s basketball knew this moment was coming.
Taurasi seemed to acknowledge that on ABC’s “The View.”
“It didn’t just happen overnight,” DT said. “As the seasons started piling on, 20 seasons, you know, 12 seasons overseas, I think just being 42 and really doing everything that I could have ever dreamt to do on a basketball court, I felt full. I was happy.”
It was a mind-numbing statement. Diana Taurasi? Happy? Did someone show her a video of Sue Bird taking a pie to the face?!
I’ve been around DT since I started covering the Mercury in 2017. I could describe her with more adjectives, comparatives and superlatives than an English teacher on her third cup of coffee and I wouldn’t even consider using the word “happy.”
I’ve seen photos of DT smiling after winning six Olympic gold medals, three WNBA titles and three NCAA championships. But I’ve always assumed they were camera tricks. AI deep fakes back when only top-secret government spy agencies – and Hollywood – had access to that kind of tricknology.
The only time I’ve ever seen DT consider smiling was during the All-Star Game in Phoenix last summer, and I just assumed that was because she had won a bet with Caitlin Clark and was about to make the rookie get an “I heart White Mamba” tattoo.
But, I guess, that’s it: DT felt happy, meaning she didn’t have the edge necessary to put up another 10,646 points or 3,341 field goals or 1,447 3-pointers. (Each of those totals is good for first on the WNBA’s all-time list, by the way.)
It raises the obvious question: What’s next?
“That’s the question that I still don’t have an answer for,” Taurasi told Time.
I’ve got a couple of ideas.
DT and Sue Bird could go find Ernie Johnson and Candace Parker to do an “Inside the NBA” style show, focused on the women’s game.
If you’ve never seen “Inside the NBA,” it’s single-handedly the reason bros watch pro basketball. Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson act as the set-up men for Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to make immature jokes that are tangentially related to hoops.
And if you’ve never seen the “Bird & Taurasi Show” then you have no idea that this duo can be just as sophomoric.
If not that, Taurasi could go into coaching.
Not that I think she’d be any good at it. I’d just like to see Vegas set an over/under for how many games it would take before she attacked one of her own players or a referee.
Watching Taurasi coach would be like waiting for a volcano to erupt: You know it’s going to happen, you just want to make sure you see it when it does.
Regardless, Taurasi’s legacy is secure.
We could debate her place on “greatest of all time” lists, as if a real GOAT would ever care what mere sheep bleat on about.
Plenty of players deserve to be part of that conversation. Ann Meyers. Cheryl Miller. Cynthia Cooper. Lisa Leslie. Maya Moore. Candace Parker.
But for now, just know Taurasi’s college coach, Geno Auriemma, insisted Taurasi wear No. 3 on her jersey because he thought of her as he did Babe Ruth, according to Time.
Another way to think of it? Joy Behar said it best on “The View.”
“I’m not a sports person,” Behar said to Taurasi. “I’m not that good at sports, but I’m interested in you.”
And there’s DT’s real legacy: When she started playing basketball, diehard fans cared; and now, as she’s saying goodbye, everybody cares.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Revealing the big reason Phoenix Mercury great Diana Taurasi retired
