Diana Taurasi says goodbye to the game she helped grow

In recent years the question had been lobbed at Diana Taurasi in a multitude of ways and wordings: When was she going to step away from basketball? Playing into her 40s, when was she going to finally hang up her shoes?

As she had in her play during a two-and-a-half-decade career in college and professional basketball, she answered these questions with a wit and edge about her. She would when she was ready, and the rest of the world would know sometime thereafter.

At the Olympics this summer, where she had made her sixth Team USA roster, she once again was asked about an impending retirement. “Only a woman would have 20 years of experience,” she said, “and it’s an Achilles’ heel instead of something that is treasured.”

There was an earnestness in all her responses, and it was clear that retirement wasn’t something she was ignoring, just simply something she didn’t yet feel was her next step. But reality was there. In recent years, she changed her diet and recovery routine. She was open about how much work it took to stay in the game, and that the work felt like work. But she still loved the game more than almost anything.

When she was on the floor, that was evident.

For as much fire and fight as she played with, few others exuded as much joy as Taurasi. Even into Year 22 in the league, she bounded about during layup lines and approached high-fiving her teammates and coaches like they were a necessary science. From her bun to her knee-length shorts (a style that had long passed its fashionable era), it was impossible to not — at times — see the California kid who had shown up to Storrs, Conn., in 2000.

It was there where many got to know Taurasi for the first time, and it is now — 25 years later — that it’s officially time to say goodbye to Taurasi the player.

On Tuesday late afternoon, around the time when many people were just getting off work, Taurasi announced that she, too, was done with work. An email went out to media members with a slew of quotes, a story ran in Time and an announcement was made that Taurasi would appear Wednesday on “The View,” the popular ABC talk show.

All of it was peak Taurasi — expected but with an unconventional element, understated but obvious, a little tongue in cheek, it seems. So much of what she did on the floor was with a knowing wink. She was the ultimate guard who saw a play ahead and knew just a bit more than everyone else on the floor.

In the Time article, Taurasi says she knew she was ready to walk away from the game on New Year’s Day this year. “Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” she said. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”

Few have had fuller careers in any sport than Taurasi. She won three WNBA titles, six Olympic gold medals, three NCAA championships and six EuroLeague titles. She became the first player in WNBA history to score 10,000 points and perhaps the first to be called for 122 technicals. In between, there were individual records and accolades, WNBA All-Stars and an MVP season.

As the WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick in 2004, she made $40,800 in her rookie season. She leaves a league that just signed a landmark $2 billion media rights deal and is on the precipice of a potentially groundbreaking collective bargaining agreement.

She helped build and nurture that growth with her play and the attention she brought to the game. Her competitiveness was often unmatched and drew fans into the game. Her uncanny ability to make even those she tormented and trash-talked on the floor still love her, made her a must-watch.

“There were times when I wanted to fight her,” said Aces coach Becky Hammon, who played against Taurasi for 10 seasons in the WNBA and coached against her since 2022. “And then she’d be like, ‘Do you wanna grab a beer?’” Three-time All-Star Kelsey Plum once recalled her rookie season when Taurasi cozied up to her during an out-of-bounds play and said, “Hey Plummy, good to see you,” before elbowing her and coming off a screen to hit a shot. Then Taurasi turned around and winked at Plum. There was that 2022 Storm-Mercury game when after forcing a jump ball, Taurasi and her best friend Sue Bird (in Bird’s final season in the league) stood in the paint bickering at one another about potential fouls.

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Taurasi’s absence from this upcoming WNBA season will feel more than a bit strange. She has been in the league for nearly as long as it has existed. Some of the players drafted in this year’s class were born just before Taurasi’s rookie debut in Phoenix. Her play inspired scores of kids to pick up a ball (some of whom ended up playing against her in the league), and her likeness — many assume that the WNBA logo is based on Taurasi with her iconic bun (though it has never been confirmed, and the marketing firm insists it is not) — is ingrained in the W’s branding.

But the breadcrumbs that this day was coming were there all along. In the lead-up to her final home game last season, the Mercury touted shirts and memorabilia that read, “If this is it.” There was a tribute video. Even though she didn’t know then that it was truly it, there was a feeling that it could be close. Then, this offseason, Taurasi’s longtime teammate and close friend Brittney Griner signed with the Atlanta Dream, signaling a breaking up of the band. It seemed an unlikely move if Taurasi was planning to stay for another year.

Her retirement may seem like even more of a blow because it comes on the heels of so many other WNBA greats who have left the floor for the last time in recent seasons — Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Candace Parker. Now add Taurasi to that list. The league is turning over to a new generation that’s running a path paved by the greats, like Taurasi. Like others who have helped build legacies and dynasties, these retired stars won’t get to be a part of some of the fruits of their labor as the game continues to reach new heights.

But, like Taurasi said, she leaves because she feels full and happy. At the end of a career that had ups and downs, more injuries than we’ll probably ever know and at least one broken door, that seems like a win. That she does it on her terms, makes it perfectly Dee.

In her first season as a WNBA player, she was selected for the 2004 Olympic roster as the team’s youngest player. She asked then-coach Van Chancellor what he needed from her, and he told her that — with veteran players like Dawn Staley on the team — he needed Taurasi to act like the rookie she was, and she readily agreed. But in her first Olympic game with that team, she showed up with two left shoes. A true rookie move, and something that might’ve gotten any other player sent back to the U.S. … if it weren’t Diana.

In her final WNBA season, she welcomed some iconic rookies to the league, players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. They’re a part of the new wave of players who’ve had opportunities she never did, but who have them — in part — because of how Taurasi helped grow the game. In the last game Taurasi played, she fouled out. Another moment that felt more than fitting.

She knows she’ll miss the competition and everything that comes with being a teammate. The league, her teammates and her opponents will certainly miss her, too. She’s looking forward to hanging out with her wife, Penny, and taking her two kids to school. There will be no long run-up to the season with hours spent preparing her mind and body to compete for 30-plus games. Life will be drastically different this summer than it has been over the last two dozen, but she’s ready for whatever that might look like — 20 years in any professional sports league can certainly prepare athletes for the unknown and the unexpected.

What 20 years might not prepare an athlete for is ultimately how to say goodbye, which is sometimes the hardest thing for an athlete at her level and with her competitive drive. But like so much of Taurasi’s career, she managed an exit that everyone saw coming but that still caught us all a bit surprised. It’s her final elbow to the stomach and a wink as she runs down the floor. It all feels very Diana.

(Photo: David Sherman / NBAE via Getty Images)