WNBA Superstar Diana Taurasi Announces Retirement
Farewell to the one and only DT.
WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and six-time Olympic Gold medalist Diana Taurasi officially announced her retirement Tuesday.
At 42, Taurasi is the oldest active player in league history and has maintained an impressive WNBA career that certifies her as one of the greatest. After leading the University of Connecticut to three consecutive championships from 2002-2004, the Phoenix Mercury selected her as the No.1 overall pick in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi spent her entire 20-year career in Phoenix, led the team to three championships, and became the first player to reach 10,000 career points. She even spent some time playing overseas during the offseason, collecting six EuroLeague titles in Russia and Turkey.
Diana Taurasi aka The White Mamba is retiring from the WNBA at the age of 42
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 25, 2025
3 x WNBA Champion
2 x WNBA Finals MVP
14 x All-WNBA
5 x Scoring Leader
1 x Assist Leader
She's the only player in WNBA history with more than 8K career points. She has 10,646!pic.twitter.com/ffhoKX3riR
Not only will her smooth deep three-pointers be missed, but the cockiness and swagger she brought to the court. Her competitive, funny, trash-talking personality was just as iconic as her play. Whether it was mouthing off to a referee “I’ll see you in the lobby,” over a foul call she didn’t like, or kissing Seimone Augustus on the cheek during a WNBA playoff game, the queen of technical fouls brought an intense but playful competitiveness to every game.
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As a gay professional athlete, Taurasi used her large platform to be vocal about LGBTQ+ inclusion during a time when the league refused to acknowledge its queer players. She came out publicly in 2017 with a wedding announcement to Penny Taylor, her former Mercury teammate. The couple now has two children, a 7-year-old boy son named Leo and a 3-year-old daughter named Isla.
“I’m going to miss the competition,” Taurasi told Time. “I’m going to miss trying to get better every single offseason. I’m going to miss the bus rides, [and] shootarounds. I’m going to miss the inside jokes. I’m going to miss the locker room, [and] the things that come with being on a basketball team. All those things, I’ll deeply miss.”
The court Taurasi leaves would not be what it is today without her groundbreaking journey, and her legacy will only continue to influence the future of women’s sports.
