Diana Taurasi

Diana Taurasi (born June 11, 1982, Glendale, California, U.S.) is an American professional basketball player who was one of the greatest players in the history of the women’s game. She helped lead the Phoenix Mercury to three Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) championships (2007, 2009, and 2014). The 6-foot- (1.83-metre-) tall guard was named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2009. A five-time scoring champion, she became the league’s all-time leading scorer in 2017. In addition to her stellar career in the WNBA, Taurasi was a member of the U.S. women’s basketball teams that won five consecutive Olympic gold medals between 2004 and 2021.

Taurasi’s mother was a native of Argentina, and her father, a former professional football (soccer) player, was Italian-born. While growing up, Taurasi played both basketball and football. Once she started high school, she decided to focus her efforts on basketball, and over the next four years she became one of the most prolific scorers in California high-school history. In 2000 she won the Naismith Award for the national girls’ high-school basketball player of the year. For her college career Taurasi chose to play for the University of Connecticut (UConn) under head coach Geno Auriemma. In 2001–02 UConn—led by Taurasi and fellow standout guard Sue Bird—went 39–0 and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s national championship. UConn repeated as champions in 2002–03 and 2003–04, Taurasi earning the Naismith Award for the women’s college basketball player of the year in both seasons. She then entered the 2004 WNBA draft, where Phoenix selected her with the first overall pick.

The addition of Taurasi helped the Mercury improve from a league-worst 8–26 record in 2003 to a 17–17 finish in 2004. Taurasi, who led the team with averages of 17 points and 3.9 assists per game, was named 2004 Rookie of the Year and earned the first of 10 first-team All-WNBA honours that season. In 2006 she won the league’s scoring title, averaging 25.3 points per game and setting a single-season record by making 121 three-point shots. The following season, behind the backcourt play of Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, the Mercury advanced to the WNBA finals, where it defeated the Detroit Shock to secure the franchise’s first championship. Taurasi garnered four more scoring titles between 2008 and 2011. In 2009 the Mercury returned to the finals, this time besting the Indiana Fever for the title. Taurasi received both the season MVP award and the finals MVP award that year.

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Taurasi ranked second in the league in assists per game in 2013 (6.2) and 2014 (5.6). She and centre Brittney Griner spearheaded the Mercury’s run to the 2014 WNBA title. Phoenix swept the Chicago Sky in the finals to claim a third championship, and Taurasi collected her second finals MVP award. In 2017 she surpassed Tina Thompson’s mark of 7,488 career points to take the top spot on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. In 2020 Taurasi earned her 14th All-WNBA selection (first- and second-team), another league record. The following season she led Phoenix back to the finals, but the team lost the championship series to Chicago. Just prior to the start of those finals the WNBA announced that, in a fan vote held to celebrate the league’s 25th anniversary, Taurasi had been voted the greatest WNBA player of all time.

In international play, Taurasi made her Olympic debut at the 2004 Games in Athens, where she helped the U.S. women go undefeated and capture the gold medal. She was instrumental in extending the team’s unbeaten streak over the next four successive Olympics. At the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Taurasi set a single-game Olympic record by hitting six three-point shots in a game against Serbia. At the 2020 Games in Tokyo (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), she made history with Bird, who had played alongside Taurasi in every Olympics since 2004. The pair became the most-decorated Olympic basketball players of all time by winning their fifth gold medals in Tokyo.