NBA Legend Deems Diana Taurasi Top 10 Basketball Player, 'Men and Women'
Regardless of whether she has played her last WNBA game, Diana Taurasi has already cemented herself as one of (if not the) greatest women's basketball players of all time.
Taurasi is a three-time WNBA Champion, two-time WNBA Finals MVP, 11-time WNBA All-Star, 2009 WNBA MVP, 10-time All-WNBA First-Team honoree, a five-time WNBA scoring champion, and a six-time Olympic gold medalist. How's that for a resume?
The 42-year-old Phoenix Mercury icon still hadn't made it clear whether she'd be retiring by the time Phoenix was knocked out of the 2024 WNBA playoffs by the Minnesota Lynx earlier this week. It appears that she's still mulling the decision, and will likely make a final call sometime this offseason.
While she's making her choice, NBA legend Paul Pierce gave her some of the highest praise a basketball player can receive in a September 27 episode of the "All The Smoke" podcast with Pierce and Kevin Garnett.
"Diana is one of the top ten basketball players ever. And I'm talking about men and women," Pierce said. "Decorated... like, when you look at her career, like college and pro and all that, you add that all up, she's one of the top ten basketball players ever. Medals and all of that.
"Like when you say Jordan, and [Le]Bron, and Taurasi, and Cheryl Miller, or whoever is in that conversation, men and women, she's in the top ten," Pierece continued to Garnett, who agreed with his take.
Kevin Garnett & Paul Pierce give Diana Taurasi her much-deserved flowers:
— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) September 27, 2024
“One of the Top-10 basketball players EVER. And I’m talking about men & women.”
ALL NEW Ticket & The Truth: https://t.co/CuMYJuyozK pic.twitter.com/PoYcp7scWx
It's cool to see NBA icons giving Taurasi her well-deserved respect after her truly iconic career may have come to an end.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.