Phoenix – While Diana Taurasi recently climbed a flight to New York, her 7 -year -old son, Leo, had a question.
“Is retirement sad?” He said.
At the end of February, Taurasi, a 20-year-old veteran from Phoenix Mercury and widely considered one of the greatest talents and personalities in basketball, Disclosed on time That she had launched her last jump, spoke her last trash. She retired of the sport she had played for most of her life.
What it meant, however, was to take shape. And is always it.
“It was the longest four -hour plane trip to New York – thinking if it’s sad,” Taurasi said at a retired press conference on Thursday.
Shortly after his arrival in the organization center of the organization, Taurasi said that his decision had not seemed real until he entered the building and that everyone gathered for the occasion. She was not there since the last pre-match shot of Phoenix in September. The memories flooded his mind.
A sports retirement press conference is unique. It may be the most emotional moment of a superstar’s career: a moment to think, a moment to thank everyone, a moment to say goodbye to the driving force of grandeur.
Almost a year ago, the Philadelphia Eagles Center, Jason Kelce, announced his retirement. Dressed in a black muscle shirt, the NFL 13 -year -old veteran sat and thanked everyone for coming. He watched his speech. His eyes watered. “Oh, guy,” said Kelce. He stopped for 30 seconds. He spoke for a minute. He broke down.
On June 16, 2022, the star of Seattle Storm Sue Bird announced on social networks that she would retire at the end of the season. During a press conference, Bird, then 41, referred to a comment that the star of New York Yankees, Derek throw, had made her retirement, saying that she was looking forward to feeling young, not like an aging athlete. She was fine, crossing each question until she said that she had the impression that she could no longer play at a high level. Then the emotion struck. A staff member has given a box of bird fabrics.
In 2015, Kobe Bryant announced his retirement In the players’ rostrum. The Los Angeles Lakers star wrote a love letter to basketball, saying that he would leave at the end of the season.
Taurasi, 42, did not collapse Thursday – his sense of humor made a powerful shield – but his press conference was still emotional. Even if the game has changed, an elevation in which Taurasi has played an important role, players like this are rarely found. Not in the next project or even the next five or 10.
Phoenix had had it for 20 years. Watched her win three titles and become the leader in the WNBA career. Taurasi had slowed down over the years, but his game was still lively. She always seemed to have at least another season, maybe more.
Bryant said his retirement came to a simple question: Taurasi described a similar situation on Thursday. After last season, she took the time to be right. As a rule, it begins to train on January 1. But January came and came. In mid-February, the motivation to prepare had still not started. Taurasi knew.
“I knew in my heart that I had it no longer in me,” she said.
This strikes athletes in different ways. After the WNBA star Candace Parker announced her retirement last year, she said she would need time to cry – that no matter how much a player is preparing to say goodbye, you cannot be ready for the gap he leaves in your soul.
In a discreet way, Taurasi admitted that she was going through this. It was the game that she has played since the age of 7, the driving force of her life as long as she can remember. “I don’t like to show my sadness externally, but I’m sad,” she said. “This is all the things that in the life I have always liked to do.”
Then she pivoted, hard as always. Taurasi said she thought it may be more emotional for the family and friends who supported her. She underlined the former training players in the public, the assistant coaches, even a photographer to “take pictures of my ugly face for 20 years”.
The biggest question was the one to which she did not answer fully. Taurasi has said that in recent weeks, she understood what it means to be at home. In the past, she was there, but her mind is still in the next game next season, the next free agency. She said she can’t wait to focus on the family: his wife, Penny Taylor, and their children, Leo and Isla.
Taurasi said she would like to stay involved in basketball, in Phoenix if possible. It could integrate perfectly into any broadcast team, WNBA or NBA. But she really doesn’t know. Taurasi said she was still training. Taylor asks why. She doesn’t have a good answer. That’s just what she has always done to improve. The old habits die hard.
The reflection will come. Taurasi will always be in the “greatest” discussion. She was among the fiercest and most competitive athletes of her generation. And his goal has never changed.
“It’s quite simple,” said Taurasi, who will go into the Mercury Honor Ring in 2026. “I just wanted to win. I didn’t do it for a little glory, a little money. I didn’t do it for any of this. I literally did it to win and have respect for the people around me. And I kept this really small and tight circle. Really life for me.
This article originally appeared in Athletics.
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