Diana Taurasi

b. 1982 Specialist

The WNBA's career scoring leader, gold medalist six times over

Portrait of Diana Taurasi — John Mac — 2024 — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Diana Taurasi was born in Glendale, California, on June 11, 1982, and raised in nearby Chino, the daughter of two Argentine immigrants. Her father, Mario, had played professional soccer as a goalkeeper in Italy before the family settled in Southern California, and both parents kept her and her older sister, Jessika, in competitive basketball from an early age. She starred at Don Antonio Lugo High School in Chino before choosing the University of Connecticut over dozens of other offers, arriving on a campus that had already built one women's basketball dynasty and was about to build another around her.

At Connecticut from 2000 to 2004 Taurasi won three consecutive national championships and two Naismith Player of the Year awards, then went first overall to the Phoenix Mercury in the 2004 WNBA draft and stayed there all 20 seasons of her career. She won three WNBA championships, in 2007, 2009, and 2014, plus a regular-season MVP award in 2009, and in August 2023 became the first player in league history to score 10,000 career points, finishing with more than anyone else in WNBA history. Internationally she won six Olympic gold medals, in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024, more than any other basketball player in Olympic history. She retired in February 2025, all 20 seasons with the same franchise.

For most of her career the real money was overseas, not in the WNBA. In 2010, while playing in Turkey, Taurasi tested positive for modafinil, had her contract voided, and was cleared five months later after an investigation tied the failure to the testing process rather than intentional doping. In 2015, at the peak of her career, her Russian club, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her more to sit out the year than the Phoenix Mercury could offer for a full season, and she skipped the WNBA season entirely to rest her body for Russia instead. She later put the imbalance plainly, a janitor at some of the arenas she played made more than WNBA players did, a gap the league did not meaningfully close until near the end of her career.

The Mercury will retire her number 3 and induct her into the team's Ring of Honor during the 2026 season, a year after she walked away. Whether her scoring record survives the sudden jump in the WNBA's popularity and pay that arrived just as she was leaving, largely on the strength of a following generation she helped make possible, is an open question the league's next decade will answer. So is the larger one, whether the financial gap she spent 20 years working around was closed in time for the players who came after her, or whether they will simply feel it differently.

Lifespan

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Diana Taurasi's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

Notable works

Three consecutive NCAA championships other
Won with UConn in 2002, 2003, and 2004 2004
Three WNBA championships other
Won with the Phoenix Mercury in 2007, 2009, and 2014 2014
WNBA career scoring record other
First player in league history to reach 10,000 points 2023
Six Olympic gold medals other
2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 — most of any basketball player 2024

Life in brief

with age at each point

June 11, 1982 aged 0 Born in Glendale, California
2000 aged ~18 Enrolls at the University of Connecticut
2004 aged ~22 Wins a third consecutive NCAA title and is drafted first overall by the Phoenix Mercury
December 2010 aged 28 Tests positive for modafinil while playing in Turkey; contract voided
February 2011 aged 28 Cleared after an investigation into the testing process
2015 aged ~33 Sits out the WNBA season to rest for her Russian club instead
August 3, 2023 aged 41 Becomes the first WNBA player to reach 10,000 career points
February 2025 aged 42 Announces retirement after 20 seasons
2026 aged ~44 The Phoenix Mercury retire her number 3 and induct her into the Ring of Honor