{"id":340929,"date":"2025-12-10T11:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340929\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:52:22","slug":"gold-medalist-and-wnba-leading-scorer-diana-taurasi-retires-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340929\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold medalist and WNBA leading scorer Diana Taurasi retires : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Diana<\/p>\n

\n Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury has announced she will retire. The six-time Olympic gold medalist is also the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer and a fan favorite.<\/p>\n

Christian Petersen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

hide caption\n <\/p>\n

toggle caption<\/p>\n

Christian Petersen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Diana Taurasi, the Phoenix Mercury guard who at six feet tall was a giant of U.S. women’s basketball<\/a> for two decades, has retired.<\/p>\n

\"Diana<\/a> <\/p>\n

Taurasi, 42, made the announcement in an interview published Tuesday in TIME Magazine<\/a>. “Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” she told TIME. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”<\/p>\n

Taurasi leaves the WNBA as perhaps the most decorated player in the history of women’s basketball. She was named Most Valuable Player in 2009 and was an All-Star 11 times. She led the Mercury to three WNBA titles, Team USA to six Olympic gold medals<\/a> and her college team, the UConn Huskies, to three NCAA championships. She was fastest to reach 5,000 career points and the only to reach 10,000. She remains the league’s all-time leading scorer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her retirement did not come entirely as a surprise. After the Mercury’s last home game last September, Taurasi took to the court to speak to fans as they chanted “one more year.”<\/p>\n

“I want to thank every single coach, every single player, every single person that’s put on a WNBA jersey, because it takes a village,” Taurasi said then. “For everyone who played before this league was where it is now, we’re thankful for you guys. And we’re thankful for the next generation.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

The WNBA had existed for only eight years before Taurasi was drafted. Now, at the end of her career, the league \u2014 and sport \u2014 are in a far healthier place. An average of 1.6 million viewers watched a thrilling Finals series<\/a> between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx. A surge in attendance and a new media rights deal<\/a> signed last year have put more money in teams’ pockets. Three new franchises are poised to join the league in the next two years.<\/p>\n

“Diana Taurasi is one of the greatest competitors to ever play the game of basketball on any stage,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a statement<\/a>. “I thank Diana for everything that she has brought to the WNBA \u2014 her passion, her charisma and, most of all, her relentless dedication to the game.”<\/p>\n

Now, the league’s biggest young star, Caitlin Clark, is a 23-year-old who once considered Taurasi her idol. Shortly after news broke, Clark posted news of Taurasi’s retirement on her Instagram with a one-word caption: “legend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury has announced she will retire. The six-time Olympic gold medalist is also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-340929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}