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≡ TAURASI RETIRES ≡
One of the greatest players in the history of women’s basketball, at Connecticut, the Phoenix Mercury and the U.S. women’s national team, Diana Taurasi, announced her retirement in an interview with Time Magazine, in a story posted late Tuesday.
She explained that she usually begins her seasonal training on New Year’s Day, but did not feel the desire in 2025. “That was pretty much when I knew it was time to walk away.”
Taurasi, 42, leaves as one of the giants of the women’s game, coming from Don Lugo High School in Chino, California to become a two-time All-American and three-time NCAA champion at Connecticut, a three-time WNBA champion with the Phoenix Mercury and a 10-time first-team All-WNBA selection.
She is, by far, the all-time WNBA scoring leader, with 10,646 points in 20 seasons, averaging 18.8 points per game. She’s almost 3,000 points ahead of no. 2 Tina Charles.
But she has a special standing among American Olympians.
Taurasi was a six-time Olympian and won six gold medals as a member of the American women’s teams in 2004-08-12-16-20-24. Consider:
● She has the most Olympic golds of any team-sport athlete, male or female, from any country, ever.
● Among American Olympic gold medalists, only swimmers (6), track & field (3) and gymnastics (1) athletes have more.
● The six Olympic teams Taurasi played on had a combined record of 44-0!
She was a major contributor on five of her Olympic teams, but was a down-bench reserve in Paris:
● 2004: Averaged 8.2 points per game for 5 games on 34.9% shooting
● 2008: Averaged 9.4 points per game for 5 games on 47.4% shooting
● 2012: Averaged 12.2 points per game for 5 games on 45.5% shooting
● 2016: Averaged 14.2 points per game for 5 games on 56.4% shooting
● 2020: Averaged 8.0 points per game for 3 games on 57.1% shooting
● 2024: Averaged 0.7 points per game for 3 games on 16.7% shooting
Taurasi was not just an Olympic star. She also won three FIBA World Championships golds and a bronze in 2006-10-14-18. Her teams were 29-1 and won the last 22 in a row with her on the team.
That’s nine international championships and a bronze in 10 teams. And she played overseas as well – the WNBA is a summer-season league – and was a winner everywhere she played:
● 7-time Russian national league champion
● 6-time EuroLeague champion
● 1-time Turkish national league champion
Add those up, with Connecticut, the WNBA, the Olympic Games and the FIBA Worlds and she played on a staggering 26 championship teams across 24 seasons.
She was a winner at every level, and at 42, will no doubt find ways to continue influencing the game. For now, she is the standard against which all others will be measured.
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