Diana Taurasi courts unveiled as Mercury opens $100 million practice facility to kick off WNBA All-Star weekend

By Jeff Metcalfe

For Diana Taurasi to willingly agree to a non-game day celebration in her honor requires something transcendent.

Like two full-sized courts being named in her honor at the grand opening of the Phoenix Mercury’s new $100-million practice facility just south of Footprint Center, where the 20th WNBA All-Star Game will be played Saturday.

Taurasi — in her 20th WNBA season out of the league’s 28, all with the Mercury – is about to play in her women’s basketball record sixth Olympics and 11th All-Star Game. She is the WNBA’s leading scorer by a mile with 10,447 regular-season points, surpassing Tina Thompson (7,488) in 2017.

What the 42-year-old Taurasi realized Thursday was that feeling the love of invitees circling her court for the naming ceremony mattered more than any discomfort she might feel in the spotlight.

“It’s actually kind of nice,” to be monumentally recognized while still playing, Taurasi said. “A lot of times the things you’ve always wanted come way later down the line. To be able to enjoy and be here with my team for the second half of the season, we’ve come a long way.”

From a small practice court inside Footprint Center when the WNBA began in 1997 to a plush shared practice facility with the Phoenix Suns at 44th Street and Camelback Road in 2020. And now to a 58,000-square-foot Mercury-specific facility that is part of the Player 15 Group business headquarters campus for the Suns, Mercury, G League Valley Suns and arena operations.

“This is an exciting day for women’s sports in general,” said Mercury/Suns owner Mat Ishbia, suggesting the facility could be the best in the world for a women’s franchise. Ishbia was so intent on having the unveiling during All-Star weekend that he pushed for Okland Construction to finish the job three months early.

“You’ve got to push them hard and pay the a little extra then you’ve got to have great people,” Ishbia, just 18 months into his ownership. “I was at a concert (June 27) and with some of the people working here, and they were leaving (Footprint Center) and coming back because they cared that much. They knew we had a date, and I couldn’t move the All-Star Game back a week.”

“There was 200 people here working yesterday, making it happen. Kudos to them, they deserve more credit than I do.”

Official introduction of The Diana Taurasi Court at #Mercury new practice facility: @Sports360AZ pic.twitter.com/TqzXx35Aqh

— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) July 19, 2024

Ishbia and Taurasi are a matched set when it comes to competitiveness. Otherwise he wouldn’t be spending lavishly on men’s and women’s teams and she wouldn’t be slavishly working to stay fit enough to still be a leader on the U.S. Olympic team and battling to win a fourth WNBA title.

“I can’t say how much Mat has impacted this franchise enough,” Taurasi said. “He’s just found a way to push the limits of everything. Not only building this facility in the time he’s built it, bringing All-Star here. He’s just changed the whole perception of what this city and this franchise looks like and feels like.”

The Mercury are the latest WNBA team to go big time in facilities at the moment in time when women’s basketball is experiencing exponential growth in attendance, TV viewership, media rights and sponsorships on top of the breakthrough this season of teams flying charter to games.

WNBA expansion is coming next season for the first time since 2008 with the Golden State Valkyries followed in 2026 by a team in Toronto with plans for two more teams soon after. Ishbia knows the practice facility will help the Mercury attract free agents like Natasha Cloud this season and retain Olympic All-Stars like Kahleah Copper, obtained in a trade, and Brittney Griner.

“I hope it’s short-term competitive advantage,” he said. “I hope the rest of the league rises up. That’s what it’s about. Of course, I want to win championships, but I want the whole league to rise up. This is a great inflection point of this league, that’s why we want to make this WNBA All-Star like no other. We’re going to rise up together.”

More sights and sounds from the new practice facility:

FULL TOUR of #Mercury new practice facility with General Manager Nick U’Ren:@Sports360AZ #ValleyTogether pic.twitter.com/3o62XVvorN

— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) July 19, 2024