WNBA\u2019s career scoring leader<\/a> (by more than 2,000 points), an 11-time All-Star, a six-time Olympic gold medalist, a five-time scoring champion, a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, the 2009 regular-season MVP and the 2004 Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\nShe said Sunday\u2019s honor ranks up there with her biggest accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s a big one,\u201d Taurasi said before the game. \u201cToday feels different. When your number goes up there, you can\u2019t use it anymore, it\u2019s done. So if there was any little competitiveness still in me, I think today it goes up in the rafters with the number and it feels really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than the sheer numbers, she\u2019s remembered for her fierce personality that resonated in Arizona, helping turn the Mercury into one of the WNBA\u2019s premier franchises. Taurasi was surrounded on Sunday by friends and family, including her wife Penny Taylor and their two children.<\/p>\n
She said she\u2019s lucky to have 20 years of friendships to celebrate \u2014 including her long relationship with the \u201cX-Factor,\u201d which is the nickname for the team\u2019s loyal fan base.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I walk into (the arena), I don\u2019t see strangers, I don\u2019t see employees,\u201d Taurasi said. \u201cI see friends, I see people I go to dinner with, I see people I text regularly with. This isn\u2019t just something where I showed up and said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s see what we can do here and then leave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI treated this like my extended family. I think that\u2019s why walking in today \u2014 I\u2019m really emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thousands of fans celebrate<\/p>\n
Hundreds of fans had gathered in downtown Phoenix more than two hours before the game \u2014 many wearing the No. 3 jersey Taurasi donned for two decades \u2014 even on an August afternoon with temperatures topping 105 degrees. Some took pictures in front of a mural featuring Taurasi on the side of the arena.<\/p>\n
The announced attendance was 16,513, a sellout and a testament to how much the WNBA has grown since she debuted with the Mercury in 2004 after a stellar college career at UConn.<\/p>\n
A string of tributes flowed throughout the evening, including from Suns star Devin Booker, former teammate Brittney Griner and recent football Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Larry Fitzgerald. Three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes and 23-time gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps were also in attendance.<\/p>\n
Taurasi\u2019s name was in lights several feet off one of the baselines, with some real, live goats grazing on hay. There was also a \u201cGoat Plush Toss\u201d where game staff threw toy goats into the stands.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no doubt who fans in Arizona believe is the greatest WNBA player of all time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the Valley, there\u2019s a reason you call her the G.O.A.T,\u201d said Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts. \u201cWe all believe that, the impact that she\u2019s made on this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diana Taurasi was feted for her alltime great career and inducted into the Phoenix Mercury Ring of Honor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[14824,5551,31811,99,434],"class_list":["post-816209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-diana-taurasi","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-ring-of-honor","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816209","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=816209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages_taurasi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n