{"id":362081,"date":"2025-12-22T17:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/362081\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T17:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:08:07","slug":"how-mercurys-taylor-became-a-hall-of-fame-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/362081\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mercury&#8217;s Taylor Became A Hall Of Fame Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_8vzcjz0er\">Penny Taylor is a <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/phoenix-michele-timms-penny-taylor-jennifer-gillom-cheryl-miller\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Mercury legend<\/a>, and her time with the team began in 2004. She was Phoenix&#8217;s pick in a dispersal draft, as the Cleveland Rockers folded after the 2003 season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_sq6h9jj0c\">The Mercury were on the right path, as they drafted Diana Taurasi later that year. Taylor had some excellent years with the Mercury, and <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/penny-taylor-diana-taurasi-phoenix\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in her final season<\/a>, she averaged 12.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.5 steals. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Penny Taylo\" title=\"Penny Taylo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 9, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Mercury forward Penny Taylor (13) shoots a free throw against the Chicago Sky during game two of the WNBA Finals at US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<br \/>\n \/ Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_t9bnoe9hm\">Taylor accomplished many things in her career, and later on, she joined a special group. Phoenix&#8217;s forward was inducted into the Women&#8217;s Basketball Hall of Fame, and she was a part of the Class of 2022. She joined great names tied to women&#8217;s basketball, such as Debbie Antonelli, Doug Bruno, Paul Sanderford and Bob Schneider. She was also joined by Becky Hammon and DeLisha Milton-Jones. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_n5077046j\">Phoenix&#8217;s forward was there for all three of the team&#8217;s championships, and in the first game of the <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/boxscore\/_\/gameId\/270905003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2007 WNBA Finals,<\/a> Taylor could not be stopped. She had 32 points, and she also had nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Penny Taylo\" title=\"Penny Taylo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 9, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Mercury forward Penny Taylor (13) against the Chicago Sky during game two of the WNBA Finals at US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<br \/>\n \/ Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_wpkigl2tq\">The Mercury faced the Detroit Shock in that series, and Detroit spoiled Taylor&#8217;s big night. The Eastern Conference team beat the Mercury 108-100 in that game, but Taylor and her team bounced back in the next game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_zd471vibx\">Detroit hosted Phoenix in the first time games, and the Mercury managed to tie the series in Game 2. Taylor had a quieter performance scoring-wise, as she had nine points. However, she contributed in different areas, and she had five assists, four rebounds and two steals. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Penny Taylo\" title=\"Penny Taylo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former Phoenix Mercury player Penny Taylor speaks during the 2014 Phoenix Mercury championship team reunion on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 at Footprint Center in Phoenix. \/ Owen Ziliak\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_6kw0xavk8\">Taylor continued to play well, and in the end, she helped the Mercury win it all. Overall, she had a nice playoff run, as she averaged 19.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_cgcmcmg7q\">When it comes to her career, Taylor not only impacted the Mercury, she impacted the Women&#8217;s National Basketball League (WNBL) and Australia&#8217;s Olympic team. She helped Australia win two silver medals, and she won a championship in the WNBL. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_jfyzrkphz\">Taylor had an illustrious career, and her induction into the Women&#8217;s Basketball Hall of Fame was well-deserved. She was a part of a great group, and as time goes on, more elite players will join them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_djb4gaz16\">Please follow us on X to read more about Penny Taylor and her accolades when you click right <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MercuryOnSI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penny Taylor is a Phoenix Mercury legend, and her time with the team began in 2004. She was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-362081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}