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Diana Taurasi has officially announced that she will be retiring from the WNBA after 20 legendary years. Having spent her entire career with the Phoenix Mercury, Taurasi leaves the sport as one of the most decorated players in professional basketball history.
Throughout the course of her career, she won three WNBA championships and secured the spot as the league’s all-time leading scorer with 10,646 points. In the present league, not one single player has been remotely close to her offensive record. She was the No. 1 pick for the Mercury team and named 2004 Rookie of the Year. She went on to be an 11-time WNBA All-Star, two-time WNBA Finals MVP, 10-time All-WNBA First Team, a six-time Olympic Gold Medalist and five-time WNBA scoring champion. Prior to entering the league, Taurasi was also a three-time NCAA Champion and two-time Naismith College Player of the Year. With 20 seasons in the WNBA, Taurasi set the standard for women’s professional basketball, leaving a legendary journey that many players have called impressive to watch and helped to transcend the game.
LeBron James gave Taurasi her flowers, telling Time, “Just seeing her transcend the game, watching little girls want to play like her, her style, her flair, her bravado, you know, her swagger, it’s been an unbelievable treat. She’s one of the all-time greatest, and she will leave her mark on the game of basketball the moment she ties those shoes up and throws them over the pole line. It’s been an honor. All love.” Fellow WNBA icon Sue Bird also said in the same interview, “Dee is the one that did have street cred. You walk around airports, you’re in different cities, you’re over here, there, people knew Dee everywhere you go.”
In 2024, Taurasi became the WNBA’s oldest active player. Her longevity continues to be part of the conversation that cements her as one of the greats to ever play the game. On retiring, Taurasi told Time why it was the right moment to retire. She told the publication that she knew it was time to leave the sport on New Year’s Day, “I knew it was time to walk away. Mentally and physically, I’m just full. That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”
After 20 years of playing in the WNBA, Diana Taurasi is officially retiring 🧡
Thank you Diana for changing the game forever, all of the accolades could never amount to the type of person and edge you embodied when you stepped out there on the court
One-of-One 💐 pic.twitter.com/dEtE4NDrGH
— WNBA (@WNBA) February 25, 2025
She didn’t just wear the jersey – she built our franchise.She played the game, then changed it forever.
Thank you will never be enough. But it’s a start 💜 pic.twitter.com/X34bgGBWqv
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) February 25, 2025
