PHOENIX (AP) — Diana Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury teammates wore her No. 3 jersey for introductions, a nod to the possibility this was the final home game in the 20-year career of the player widely considered the greatest women’s player of all-time.
If this was her last game, Taurasi didn’t act like it.
Despite a deafening roar during player introductions, Taurasi treated Thursday night’s game against Seattle like any other, slapping hands with her teammates before trotting onto the floor.
Taurasi has been coy about retirement, remaining noncommittal while hinting it might be right around the corner.
The Mercury have stoked the retirement talk embers on social media with a post last week that said “ If this is it ” and another early Thursday that included the reading of a letter by her wife, former Mercury player Penny Taylor.
Whenever Taurasi does hang up her basketball shoes, her place in women’s basketball history will already be secured.
Taurasi won three straight national championship at UConn and kept on winning after the Mercury selected her with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 WNBA draft. She earned WNBA rookie of the year honors and won the first of three WNBA titles in 2007.
The Glendale, California native is one of four players to win multiple WNBA Finals MVPs (2009, 2014) and was the league MVP for the 2009 season. She won six Euroleague championships while playing year round most of her career and claimed her sixth Olympic gold medal at this summer’s Paris Games. She’s the WNBA’s career scoring leader — about 3,000 more than Tina Charles in second — top playoff scorer and has made the most 3-pointers in league history.
Taurasi also made the all-WNBA first team 10 times and is an 11-time WNBA All-Star, including this season.
And she’s barely slowed at 42, averaging 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists while leading the Mercury to the playoffs.
