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Diana Taurasi timing perfect for Phoenix Mercury retirement

AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

By Jeff Metcalfe

Diana Taurasi’s work is done.

Short of a fourth WNBA title, Taurasi has everything there is to win in women’s basketball, culminating with an Olympic record sixth gold medal this summer.

The Paris Olympic experience, though, was unlike the previous five. Taurasi lost her place in the starting lineup, averaged just one point and 11.2 minutes (both U.S. lows) and sat out the entire gold medal game.

No need to prosecute that insult except to paraphrase Johnny Castle from Dirty Dancing:

Nobody puts Diana Taurasi in the corner.

That’s why this is the right time for the 42-year-old to retire as seems 90 percent likely following culmination of the Phoenix Mercury’s “if this is it” marketing campaign with a touching Taurasi love fest during the final regular season home game Thursday.

For Taurasi to even get on board with the two-game see her while you still can push speaks volumes about her being ready to take off a uniform for the last time (putting it on is the easy part).

Taurasi has started every Mercury game she’s played since 2004. That’s 565 regular season and 71 in the playoffs going into a WNBA first-round series vs. Minnesota on Sunday. Only Sue Bird is ahead of her for most games played (580 regular season) because Taurasi sat out the 2015 WNBA season for a larger salary from her Russian international team UMMC Ekaterinburg.

As recently as Sept. 15, Taurasi scored 25 points. She is averaging 14.9 points and 3.4 assists (both No. 23 in the WNBA) while playing 36 games (most in her career) of 40 games.

There’s still gas in the tank, but no need to push it to empty, forcing Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts to become Dirty Dancing’s Dr. Houseman putting the far-and-away WNBA career scoring leader into that corner.

Taurasi says she’s 50/50 good days and bad days physically. “I have days where I feel great out there and I feel like I can do this forever and I’ve still got it. But I have to take a step back and think about what’s next in my future, think about my family.”

She’s never before been that public about turning the page like Bird successfully did after the 2022 season.

There were hints after the Mercury’s run to the 2021 WNBA Finals that 2022 would be it for Taurasi too. But the lure of a sixth Olympics, just three years after Tokyo, proved too enticing given her almost certain selection based on USA Basketball legacy alone.

 

The WNBA is dramatically better now than in 2004. Four expansion teams are coming – three already announced – salaries on the rise, charter flights in place, more domestic off-season opportunities and a wealth of young talent in the league or on the way.

For 2004 WNBA Rookie of the Year Taurasi to intersect with her basketball doppelganger in scoring, playmaking and edgy demeanor Caitlin Clark, odds-on favorite for 2024 ROY, seems almost preordained as a fitting passing of the torch.

From her prominent role on three WNBA championship teams to all her individual honors to playing her entire career in Phoenix, Taurasi has delivered over and over for the Mercury.

She can do the franchise another solid by timing her exit at a pivotal moment when the Mercury need to get younger and give second-year general manager Nick U’ren more salary cap flexibility. Taurasi’s super max salary ($234,936) is invaluable going forward in a league with a hard salary cap.

Brittney Griner, playing for a reduced salary since returning from her Russian imprisonment, deserves a raise and U’Ren certainly wants to make a major free-agent play for next season.

With additional cap space, the Mercury could put a major offer on the table for Belgium power forward Emma Meesseman, who has past ties to the Mercury’s Natasha Cloud, Kahleah Copper and associate head coach Kristi Toliver.

Such a move combined with a 2025 first-round draft pick and return of Griner (assuming she re-signs), Copper, Cloud, Becca Allen and Sophie Cunningham would be a solid core with Taurasi to thank for not putting U’Ren into the unenviable position of offering her a reduced salary for a 21st season.

Everything can and should end on good terms.

 

The Mercury already found the perfect tone for a Taurasi tribute with a Dear Dee video letter this week where Griner, Penny Taylor, agent Lindsay Colas and sister Jessika Taurasi alternate thanking Diana. “How do we thank someone not for what they did, but what they gave?” Griner says at one point, and there couldn’t be anything better constructed than the cumulative message.

For perspective, Alvan Adams is the leader for most seasons with the Phoenix Suns at 13, seven fewer than Taurasi. A case can be made that the first player statue to be installed outside Footprint Center should be of Taurasi. That’s how impactful she’s been.

Yet exiting with a minimum of fuss – she had to be urged back onto the court for a brief curtain call in the closing minutes Thursday – is typical for her and nearly identical to the way Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald departed after the 2020 season without even saying retirement.

Taurasi and Fitzgerald, drafted first and third overall in their sports in spring 2004, are the epitome of what we long for in athletes – brilliant in their play and loyally willing to ride the roller coaster in one city until they choose to get off for the next phase of life.

Would Taurasi join Bird and Megan Rapinoe as a regular on their “A Touch More” podcast? Or dip into sports ownership as she has hinted at in the past? Or focus on being a parent with Taylor to their two young children? The options really are endless with Colas and Wasserman sports agency highly qualified to help sort Taurasi’s post-playing options.

Owner Mat Ishbia and chief executive officer Josh Bartelstein “have completely changed how people feel about this franchise,” Taurasi said Thursday. “It’s brought a different vision for our team going into the future. I think we’re in a good place going forward.”

Including with a sparkling new $100-million practice facility unveiled during WNBA All-Star weekend in July with a court dedication to Taurasi.

Yes, it’s the perfect place and time for Taurasi to bid farewell to her Hall of Fame career.

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