Becky Hammon Drops 3-Word Diana Taurasi Description After WNBA Legend’s Retirement

One of the greatest basketball players of all time is hanging up her sneakers, as Diana Taurasi announced that she would be retiring from the WNBA on Tuesday.

Ever since this announcement was made, the basketball community has been giving the 20-year WNBA veteran her flowers; many of whom have done so by sharing classic Taurasi stories, as she was notorious for her blunt candor off the court and borderline diabolical demeanor on the court.

Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon and Taurasi were both WNBA players from 2004-2006. However, they competed against each other for multiple seasons in Russia as players during the WNBA offseason and Hammon has had to game plan for Taurasi ever since becoming the Aces’ head coach in 2022.

And Hammon did a fantastic job of encapsulating this icon’s attitude when speaking with the media on Tuesday afternoon.

“Mojo, you know? She’s just got that ‘It’ factor,” Hammon said of Taurasi, per an X post from Logan Reever. “She has had it since day one… and she’s just continued to be great. I think she has really elevated the level of this league. What she has accomplished throughout her career, I don’t think there’s enough adjectives. And the type of competitor she was.

“She’s a maniac,” Hammon added. “She’s a maniac. She has what I call the switch… where it was like, you step between those four lines, I mean there were times I wanted to fight her, especially overseas. And then she was like ‘You want to go and get a beer?'”

Of course, when Hammon calls Taurasi a “maniac”, she means it with the utmost respect.