WNBA Legend Diana Taurasi’s Story Comes to Life in Thrilling New Prime Video Docuseries

Director Katie Bender Wynn tells Muse how she got her subject to open up

Diana Taurasi, who retired from basketball earlier this year, is widely considered the best women’s player of all time. But how much do even the most ardent WNBA fans know about her?

Not as much as they should.

That’s partly because the athlete—who first made a name for herself at UConn before spending her entire 20-year WNBA career with the Phoenix Mercury and winning six Olympic gold medals—came up in an era when social media wasn’t a thing. Plus, Taurasi has always been a relatively private person.

Which means there’s lots of historical ground to cover and revelations to share in Taurasi. Now airing on Prime Video, this fast-moving, three-part docuseries allows us to get to know the legend we should have known better all along.

Taurasi is an open book—confident, candid, clever and not shy about dropping an F-bomb when necessary. In an era of sanitized sports docs focused on superstars who don’t get real, Taurasi stands out for sharing the unvarnished truth about the highs and the lows of her life on and off the court.

Director Katie Bender Wynn clearly earned the trust of her subject. A former gymnast and freestyle skier who understands the mindset of an athlete, Wynn’s directorial credits include the sports docs The Will to Fly and Matildas: The World At Our Feet.

“I take the fly-on-the-wall approach when I’m with these athletes and over time have them understand that I’m not going to put them in a funny situation,” she tells Muse. “Once they understand that and feel that I’m not going to be an annoying filmmaker—because that can be a thing—that’s where I earn the trust, and they allow you in more.”

When filming began, Taursai still hadn’t decided on retirement. “A lot of filmmakers could have maybe poked at that,” says Wynn, who chose not to press Taurasi on the matter. “I understand that retirement is such a big thing for an athlete. And it’s not my decision or anyone else’s decision when we’re going to shoot that. They have to come to the decision of when they want to make that move.”

Taurasi announced in an exclusive interview with Time in February that she was walking away from basketball.

“I was probably lucky as a filmmaker that I had time to hang back and wait for her to come to that decision and still be able to capture it,” Wynn says. “It’s nice to be able to have a clear beginning and ending. And I felt like we were able to really bring that home. It was a strong finish.”

Interviews with people in Taurasi’s orbit round out a fascinating portrait. They include Geno Auriemma, who coached Taurasi at UConn; fellow WNBA legend Sue Bird; women’s basketball agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas; Taurasi’s wife and former Mercury teammate Penny Taylor; plus the subject’s parents Liliana and Mario, as well as her sister Jessika.

Taurasi’s career is covered in depth from her college days through her two decades with the Phoenix. The second episode of the series actually focuses on the time she spent playing in Russia, lured by the big pay she couldn’t make in the WNBA. It’s a riveting tale full of intrigue you wouldn’t expect to encounter in a sports doc.

The docuseries—edited by Mohamed El Manasterly (lead editor), Camilla Bartoli, Jaki Covington, Steph Kelly and Julian Robinson—also delves into Taurasi’s upbringing in Chino, Calif., and the interviews with her parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina, rank among the film’s most meaningful highlights.

Taurasi’s parents speak English, but Wynn chose to interview them in Spanish so they could communicate comfortably. This decision might not sound like a big deal. But it stands out because, even today, too many execs at streamers and networks believe that American audiences don’t want to read subtitles in documentaries. (Obviously, Prime Video did not feel this way. So, bravo to them.)

As Wynn expected, talking to Liliana and Mario in Spanish yielded a treasure trove of memories and material.

“When I finished the film, Diana was joking, ‘I bet you didn’t get very much from my parents.’ I’m like, ‘Well, actually, it was the longest interview ever because once you get them speaking in Spanish, they are non-stop,’” Wynn recalls.

As you listen to them talk about Taurasi at the outset of episode one, you quickly realize she was born with a fire in her to be someone special, and her family knew it all along and supported her. Mario talks about how he would come home from a long day at work and play basketball with his daughter in the driveway. Liliana says some nights she would be outside with Taurasi until 11:30 p.m. because her daughter didn’t want to go to bed until she had sunk 300 free throws.

“They left Argentina for a better life, and the result of that was producing the greatest basketball player of all time,” Wynn says. “I just think that’s such a beautiful immigrant story. So, that component was really important to me to bring to life. They add a lot of character, and it also offsets the sports and gives relief, I think, to mainstream audiences to hear from the family.”

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