Diana Taurasi said goodbye.
Taurasse, the most accomplished, the most important, the most popular, the most recognized, the most prolific, the most spectacular, the most astonishing, most of yourself, in the history of women’s basketball, told Time magazine only when she thought of preparing for another season, she realized: “I simply did not have it in me.”
The announcement was anti -limatic. I guess DT is coming back, but I knew it was more likely that she would exchange signed smoothed bread for a set of box braids, her shorts for a pair of hotpants. Anyone who was closely followed by women’s basketball knew that this moment was going to happen.
Taurasi seemed to recognize that on ABC’s “The View”.
“This did not happen overnight,” said DT. “While the seasons were starting to accumulate, 20 seasons, you know, 12 seasons abroad, I think that being 42 years old and really doing everything I could have dreamed on a basketball court, I felt satisfied. I was happy.
It was a statement that brought to mind. Diana Taurasi? Happy? Has anyone showed him a video of Sue Bird taking a face in the face?!
I have been in DT since I started to cover the mercury in 2017. I could describe it with more adjectives, comparisons and superlatives than an English teacher on his third cup of coffee and I would not even plan to use the word “happy”.
I saw photos of DT smiling after winning six Olympic gold medals, three WNBA titles and three NCAA championships. But I always assumed that they were camera laps. The Deep AI simulates when only the Espionage agencies of the Top Secret Government – and Hollywood – had access to this kind of tricknology.
The only time I saw that DT plans to smile was during the star match in Phoenix last summer, and I just assumed that it was because she had won a bet with Caitlin Clark and was about to make a recruit a “I Heart Mamba” tattoo.
But, I suppose, that’s all: DT was happy, which means that it did not have the advantage necessary to set up 10,646 points or 3,341 goals on the ground or 1,447 3 points. (Each of these totals is good for the first on the list of all WNBA, by the way.)
This raises the obvious question: what is the next step?
“This is the question for which I still have no answer,” Taurasi in Time told Tau.
I have some ideas.
DT and Sue Bird could find Ernie Johnson and Candace Parker to make a “Inside The NBA” style show, focused on the female game.
If you have never seen “inside the NBA”, it is alone the reason why Bros is looking at basketball. Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson act like the installation men of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to make immature jokes which are tangentially linked to the hoops.
And if you have never seen the “Bird & Taurasi Show”, you have no idea that this duo can be just as sophomotic.
Otherwise, Taurasi could enter coaching.
Not that I think it would be good in this area. I would just like to see Vegas adjust an exceeding / less for the number of games that would be needed before attacking one of his own players or referee.
Watching Taurasi coach would be like waiting for a volcano to burst: you know it will happen, you just want to make sure to see it when it is.
Anyway, Taurasi’s inheritance is secure.
We could debate its place on the lists “bigger of all time”, as if a real goat would never care what the simple sheep balent.
Many players deserve to be part of this conversation. Ann Meyers. Cheryl Miller. Cynthia Cooper. Lisa Leslie. Maya Moore. Candace Parker.
But for the moment, know Taurasi’s university coach Geno Auriemma, insisted that Taurasi carries the No. 3 on his jersey because he thought it as he did Babe Ruth, according to Time.
Another way to think about it? Joy Behar said it best on “sight”.
“I’m not a sportsman,” Behar told Taurasi. “I’m not so good in sport, but I’m interested in you.”
And there is the real heritage of DT: when she started playing basketball, pure and hard fans cared; And now, as she says goodbye, everyone cares.
Reach moore at [email protected] or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Sayingmoore.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Revaluate the great reason why Phoenix Mercury Great Diana Taurasi retired
