Diana Taurasi, who is without a doubt the greatest scorer in WNBA history and the owner of six Olympic gold medals, usually begins her training for the next season on January 1. She spends the next four months honing every little detail of her game before the start of training camp for the Phoenix Mercury.
This New Year’s Day, she had a gut feeling it wouldn’t be the case. “I just didn’t have it in me,” said 42-year-old Taurasi in a call from her Phoenix home to TIME.
In a heartfelt interview with TIME, Taurasi announces her retirement from basketball for the first time. She adds, “Mentally and physically, I’m just full. That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”
Taurasi’s exit from the WNBA cements her position in the running for the title of the GOAT in women’s basketball. “I have a resume,” she says. “It’s not up to me to grade it.” Completing her private tally, she counted a remarkable 10,646 points in the regular season, almost 3,000 ahead of the next player, Tina Charles.
She is also the WNBA all-time leader in three-pointers made and fourth in all-time assists. She was the WNBA MVP in 2009, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, a three-time EuroLeague MVP, and a three-time Russian League Player of the Year.
“Until someone comes along and eclipses what she’s done, then yes, she is,” says Geno Auriemma, who coached Taurasi in the Olympics in 2012 and 2016.
Taurasi reflects, “My scoring record, or the six gold medals, someone’s going to come around that has the same hunger, the same addiction to basketball, and put those records in a different way, a different name. That’s what sports is all about. That’s going to be fun to watch. Hopefully not soon.”
