Diana Taurasi, one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time, retired from basketball after an incredible 20-year career.
Taurasi announced her retirement in an exclusive article with Time Magazine on Tuesday evening.
“I just didn’t have it in me,” Taurasi said in the article, noting that she decided to walk away on New Year’s Day. “That was pretty much when I knew it was time to walk away.”
Taurasi quickly became a fan-favorite at the University of Connecticut, averaging 10.9 points per game as a freshman during the 2000-2001 season.
Taurasi helped the Huskies win three consecutive national championships from 2001 to 2004.
Taurasi was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in 2003 and 2004.
She was a two-time first-team AP All-American selection and became the first player in UConn history to finish her career with at 2,000 points, 600 assists and 600 rebounds.
“[Taurasi] had as much to do with changing women’s basketball as anyone who’s ever played the game,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said in a statement published on the team’s Instagram page.
After a collegiate career where Taurasi was named the national player of the year consecutively, she was selected by the Phoenix Mercury with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft.
She hit the ground running in the pros, being named the 2004 WNBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 17 points per game. As a rookie, Taurasi was named to the All-WNBA First Team.
The 11-time WNBA All-Star, was named the Most Valuable Player during the 2009 season, averaging 20.4 points per game. Seven of her first eight years in the WNBA saw Taurasi named to the All-WNBA First Team.
She finished her career as the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, scoring 10,646 points. No other player in WNBA history has exceeded 10,000 career points.
She led the WNBA with a league-record 25.3 points per game average in 2006.
Cathy Engelbert, the WNBA’s commissioner, called her “one of the greatest competitors to ever play the game of basketball on any stage,” in a statement released shortly after the announcement.
Of the three WNBA titles Taurasi won (2007, 2009 and 2014), she was named the Finals MVP twice.
Her career ended with her sixth Olympic gold medal, becoming the first basketball player to win that many gold medals. She is 42-0 in Olympic basketball games.
Outside of UConn, the WNBA and the Olympics, Taurasi was successful overseas, winning six EuroLeague titles in Russia and Turkey. She also was named a three-time EuroLeague MVP and a three-time Russian League Player of the Year.
Even though she said that she just needs a “sabbatical,” do not expect her to come out of retirement.
She will now have more time to spend with her family.
Taurasi and her wife Penny Taylor, a former teammate with the Mercury, have two young children. With a decorated resumé, she can still be involved in basketball. But she did admit she is not 100% sure of what she wants to do with her career on the court now in the past.
“My scoring record, or the six gold medals, someone’s going to come around that has the same hunger, the same addiction to basketball, and put those records in a different way, a different name,” Taurasi said on her unparalleled career. “That’s what sports is all about. That’s going to be fun to watch. Hopefully not soon.”
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