Diana Taurasi leaving WNBA in better place than she found it

Great athletes don’t always come with happy endings. Diana Taurasi found hers. 

It officially happened on Thursday, at a retirement press conference in downtown Phoenix, as she was sitting in a beautiful $100 million training facility built specifically for her WNBA team. To the right of the stage, her silhouette loomed large on one of the backdrops, almost dripping with swagger. The whole scene was befitting of a GOAT, a player who inspired thousands of young girls to be savage on a basketball court, that it was OK to be cutthroat in the name of competition. 

For decades, Taurasi never hesitated to poke, prod or expose the WNBA for its treatment of athletes. For the paltry salaries that required players to find second jobs in Russia. For the commercial flights that no NBA player would ever tolerate. Taurasi even left the WNBA for a year just to prove a point on behalf of everyone. 

Much has changed in recent years. Caitlin Clark is selling out huge arenas. Angel Reese stars in McDonald’s commercials. Private air travel is the new norm. The WNBA has arrived in the big-time just as Taurasi exits the stage.  

Alas, her timing could’ve been better. But real pioneers never benefit from great timing. That’s how they become pioneers in the first place. They are forced to disrupt and change the landscape.  They are the ones who do all the heavy lifting for future generations. 

On a recent flight to New York, her son Leo asked his mother a profound question: “Is retirement sad?” Taurasi said the forced reflection made the next four hours the longest flight she’s ever endured. 

“I am sad,” she admitted on Thursday. 

Her partner, former Mercury star Penny Taylor, recently noticed that Taurasi was working out at home as if she were returning for a 21st season in the WNBA. 

“What are you doing?” Taylor asked incredulously.   

“I don’t know,” Taurasi said. “I’m just trying to get better.” 

Surely, a part of Taurasi is a bit angry that all these massive changes didn’t happen on her watch, in her prime, in her time. No different than the NBA and NFL greats from yesteryear who missed out on all the perks and all the giant contracts.   

She also was asked about Sue Bird’s eye-popping comments on a recent podcast, when the fellow WNBA legend said she and Taurasi hatched a plan to leave their respective teams around 2012 or 2013 and join forces on the New York Liberty.  

At first, Taurasi pleaded the fifth. Then she explained the plan was hatched at peak frustration and after much alcohol over a five-hour dinner in Russia. Bird also said they ditched the plan the following morning, when both were sober, when Taurasi said she could never leave Phoenix and Bird vowed the same about Seattle. 

Taurasi is one of the greatest gifts bestowed on Arizona sports. She is the greatest winner in women’s basketball history, very familiar with the mountaintop. And just like Charles Barkley, she is relentlessly great content: fearless, funny, biting, witty, kowtowing to no one.   

But there was a different vibe on Thursday, when Taurasi said goodbye with a very real sense of peace and contentment. A day when a GOAT left her sport in the best place it has ever been. 

“It’s amazing to finally get here,” she said. 

Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta mornings from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports.

Follow @danbickley