UConn Huskies Legend Diana Taurasi Reflects on Shaping the Rise of Women’s Basketball

Diana Taurasi’s basketball résumé is impossible to miss, especially when it is rolled out in 15 feet of white carpet. At Monday’s Manhattan premiere of her new documentary “Taurasi,” the UConn Huskies legend was greeted not with a red carpet but with a trip down memory lane of her highlight-filled career.

The list included three NCAA championships with the Huskies, six Olympic gold medals, three WNBA titles, a league MVP award, and numerous scoring records.

As Taurasi told the Hartford Courant’s Emily Adams, the project aimed to show more than just trophies. Directed by Katie Bender Wynn, the three-part Amazon Prime Video series explores the Taurasi, from her upbringing as the daughter of Argentinian immigrants to career turbulence, including a 2009 DUI arrest and a doping suspension while playing overseas.

One focus is on Taurasi’s early professional years when the WNBA was far from stable. Drafted first overall in 2004 with a $42,000 rookie salary, she spent offseasons in Russia, earning up to 18 times her WNBA pay.

Playing for Spartak Moscow alongside former UConn teammate Sue Bird, Taurasi built a close bond with owner Shabtai Kalmanovich, who treated her like family. His assassination in 2009 left a lasting mark, but Taurasi stayed to finish the season without pay and led Spartak to a EuroLeague title.

Players at that time often feared the league might fold. Overseas contracts provided both security and respect that they did not always feel at home.

“The goal was always to play in the U.S. year-round and get valued as the best basketball players,” Taurasi said. “Sometimes I was more outspoken than people liked.”

From Diana Taurasi’s beginnings with UConn to becoming the face of the WNBA

That history gives her a unique view of today’s booming WNBA. The league is expanding to Golden State, Toronto, and Portland, with more cities, including Cleveland, set to follow. Valuations are climbing, WNBA attendance is at its highest since 1998, and television ratings continue to grow.

For Taurasi, the growth is gratifying but bittersweet. Young stars will never know the grind of splitting seasons between continents just to make a living.

“When they watch this film, it is probably going to feel very foreign to them,” Taurasi said.

Now retired, Taurasi is embracing a slower life filled with family time, travel, and quiet moments. After decades spent shaping women’s basketball and paving the way for UConn players to follow, she is content to let the next generation carry the torch with the stability she helped create in Storrs.