WNBA Legend Diana Taurasi Honored With ESPY Icon Award
She shoots, she scores!
Featured Image: Winners of the ESPY Icon Award, Alex Morgan (L) and Diana Taurasi (R).
Basketball royalty just got another jewel in her crown! Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and Phoenix Mercury legend, made a huge splash at the 2025 Excellence in Sports Performing Yearly Awards (ESPY), where she was honored with the ESPY Icon Award. This was her first public appearance since she announced her retirement back in February.
Known for her fierce competitiveness and smooth three-pointers, Taurasi joins an elite rank of sports icons who have made a profound and lasting impact on global sports.
Before the ceremony, she was accompanied by her wife and former teammate Penny Taylor on the red carpet. Wearing a chic, black pantsuit with her hair styled in her signature Taurasi bun, she reflected with TOGETHXR on playing 20 seasons in the WNBA and the future of the sport.
“You want to leave things better. And I think everyone who’s been involved in the WNBA in the last 30 years, we know the grit, the grind, it wasn’t always pretty,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that we had to navigate as female in a time where it wasn’t as forgiving. To see it prosper in not only basketball but tennis, soccer, we can go down the line to softball, volleyball, it just feels good for a lot of people.”
Taurasi accepted the ESPY Icon Award on stage alongside American professional soccer player Alex Morgan. In a joint acceptance speech with Morgan, she thanked her support system.
“In my case, let’s celebrate my parents and their immigrant grit,” she said. “That’s the stuff that doesn’t show up in the highlight reels, but it shows up when the lights go off and you’re still out there grinding—giving me a better life that’s built what my career is and built this country.”
Taurasi’s ESPY Icon win comes just ahead of the release of Taurasi, a three-part docuseries about her life and career, that will premiere on Amazon Prime on August 7. We’ll be watching!
