Diana Taurasi interview: Paige Bueckers will be the best player in the WNBA

Few players are more decorated in the world of basketball than Diana Taurasi. Over her 20-year WNBA career — all with the Phoenix Mercury — she captured three WNBA championships, two Finals MVPs, a regular season MVP and five scoring titles.

The 42-year-old also earned 11 WNBA All-Star selections, was named to the All-WNBA team 14 times, won a record six Olympic gold medals and remains the league’s all-time leading scorer with 10,646 points. No other player has reached even the 10,000-point mark.

It’s no surprise that Taurasi was voted by fans as the WNBA’s greatest player of all time in 2021 as part of the league’s 25th anniversary celebration.

On the latest episode of “No Offseason,” The Athletic’s women’s basketball reporter Ben Pickman talked to Taurasi about her hopes for the WNBA’s next collective bargaining agreement, her thoughts on fellow UConn alum Paige Bueckers and what the future holds for her in basketball.

Watch the full interview below.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the “No Offseason” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Pickman: Diana, obviously there’s an ongoing CBA negotiation. When you take a step back, seeing as you’re no longer in it, what do you hope comes next? Do you have thoughts on what you think the players should prioritize? Or when you think about their priorities that have already been put out there, are there ones that especially resonate with you as you look to the future?

Taurasi: For the longest time, I’ve always been a big proponent of player salaries because once you start increasing player salaries then all the other things fall in line. And for a long time, we’ve tried to subsidize all these things underneath player salaries. But at a certain point, we have to pay the best players in the world, in the best league in the world, what they deserve.

Now with viewership and the new media deal, all those things are in play, but like anything, it’s about negotiation. The players want certain things, the owners in the league want certain things, and at the end of the day, you have to come to the table, you have to negotiate and you have to give and take on certain things. I’m sure with this new CBA, that’s what it’ll be. And like anything, our league’s at its best when we’re lacing them up and playing.

Pickman: If you were going to be in Terri Jackson’s (the executive director of the players association) shoes, or Nneka Ogwumike’s shoes, or any of your former colleagues in the WNBA, do you have a number in mind that you think they should try to hit?

Taurasi: I think that $1 million mark is always the sexy one, as a player that’s when you feel like you’re making what you should make. That number has always been the number overseas that has made players go there for a long time. But like anything, there are so many things that go into a negotiation. I can say $1 million, or I could say $2 million, but at the end of the day, once they get into the books and they see what the league is generating, and the revenue from TV and games, then the true numbers will really come out.

But there are obviously other things too. As a player, you want to be in situations where it’s an average playing field for everyone, and it’s fair. So practice facilities and the everyday welfare of players should be at a certain standard across the league. I think we’re getting there, but there are certain franchises that are still working to get there as well.

Pickman: Obviously we know your ties to the University of Connecticut, and Paige Bueckers has now made her debut. I know you’ve already been asked the question of what advice you would give her, but how do you think she should approach getting started, having lost two games to open her career? And what do you remember about that adjustment period that might inform what she’s going through right now?

Taurasi: The best thing about playing in Connecticut is that you don’t lose a lot of games, and the worst thing about playing in Connecticut is that you don’t lose a lot of games. With the WNBA and other platforms, as I’ve said before, it’s a different beast, and there are different challenges you face as an individual and as a team.

Obviously, when you get drafted No. 1 overall, you’re usually going to a team that’s rebuilding and starting to try something new. Dallas has had some great history and some great players, but last year, their season didn’t go as expected, and that’s why they got the No. 1 overall pick. So there are a lot of challenges when you get to a team and a franchise that’s rebuilding, and you have to change your outlook on wins and losses.

You take the wins as far as getting better every single game, and as you can tell already, Paige was a different player from Game 1 to Game 2. And from Game 2 to Game 10, she’s going to be a different player. That goes for their team, as well as they learn from each other on the court and off the court.

And the one thing I know about Paige is she’s so grounded, so patient, and she’s so prepared. She’s learned that in the last four or five years, and all those things that she learned at Connecticut are going to change the way you look at that team. One day, she’s going to end up being the best player in the league for sure.

Pickman: You think she’ll end up being the best player in the league one day?

Taurasi: Absolutely. Paige’s instincts on the court are just incredible, and it takes a special skill and talent when you can galvanize a group of people. I’ve been around her long enough to know that once they get the right group around her, things will change because of her skill set and her ability to distribute and score. Paige just has tremendous talent, and once it’s unlocked, I’m going to be really excited to watch her play.

Pickman: On the other end of the spectrum, your current friend and old college teammate at UConn, Sue Bird, has obviously taken on a new role in the basketball space with USA Basketball, being the managing director. Do you ever see yourself getting back into basketball, whether that’s professional, Olympic or in a team ownership capacity?

Taurasi: Firstly, what Sue’s doing is incredible, and there’s no person better than Sue to do that role. Why wouldn’t you take the best point guard of all time to lead our USA basketball team into the next generation? It’s just a tremendous accomplishment in so many ways for her.

As far as myself, I don’t see basketball not being in my life in the next 10 to 20 years in a different capacity. Ownership is something that I’ve always been passionate about, and I’m working towards that and having different conversations.

When you can get to the point in your life where you can actually make decisions to change things, I think that’s really impactful. Especially when you’ve been in the trenches, and you know what it takes to put together a winning team and a winning culture. So I’m going to use all those things that I’ve learned in the last 20 years of my professional career, and even before that, to hopefully one day lead a team.

You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.

(Top Photo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)