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Josh Weinfuss
PHOENIX — Last week, former Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi was about to board a flight to New York when her 7-year-old son, Leo, asked: “Is retirement sad?”
For the next four hours, Taurasi contemplated the question.
“It is sad,” Taurasi said Thursday afternoon during her retirement news conference at the Mercury’s practice facility in downtown Phoenix. “I am sad. I don’t show it. I am. I don’t like to outwardly show my sadness, but I am sad. It’s the game that I played since I was 7.
“It’s all the things that in life I always love to do. And that was to play the game of basketball.”
Taurasi spoke publicly for the first time since announcing her retirement on Feb. 25 after 20 seasons with the Mercury. Earlier Thursday, the Mercury announced that Taurasi’s No. 3 would be retired next summer, when she’ll also be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor.
Taurasi’s jersey will hang in the rafters alongside jerseys of Cheryl Miller, Jennifer Gillom, Bridget Pettis, Michele Timms and Penny Taylor — who is also Taurasi’s wife.
“Diana is the greatest of all time,” team owner Mat Ishbia said Thursday. “What she has done over the last 20 years is truly remarkable. From championships to MVPs to gold medals, she is one of the most decorated athletes of all time and we’re excited to celebrate all she’s done for the sport, the franchise and our city with her induction into our Ring of Honor.”
Tauarasi added: “[Ishbia] just really makes you want to really represent this city and this club and this franchise. He has such love and admiration and it’s really nice to feel that after you’ve put in so much work, and I mean the names up there are just legends that I looked up to. Got to share the court with, won championships with, and it’ll fit nicely with them.”
She gave us everything – her fire, her loyalty, her greatness.
Diana Taurasi wasn’t just the face of the Mercury. She was the Mercury.
Summer of 2026 her name and number will hang where they belong – forever. pic.twitter.com/S9phdFlh5N
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) March 13, 2025
The WNBA’s all-time leading scorer said Thursday that she “really thought hard” about playing again in 2025 but when January turned to February, Taurasi realized she didn’t want to put herself through her vigorous training regimen to prepare for another season.
That didn’t stop her from walking into the Mercury’s practice facility on Thursday for the first time since the last shootaround of last season back in September and feeling the fleeting feeling that she may want to play again. She expects to have those feelings “a lot.”
“I knew in my heart that I didn’t have it in me to put that four-month preparation that I usually do going into a season,” she said. “I just didn’t have that in anymore and I was fine with that.”
Despite the pull of returning to the sport she has played since she was 7, Taurasi is content with her decision to walk away. That hasn’t stopped her from still staying in shape, though. Taurasi said she’s still working out like she’s getting ready for the season. It got to the point recently where Taylor said to her: “What are you doing?”
“I’m like ‘I don’t know,'” Taurasi said with a slight smirk. “I’m just trying to get better.”
Taurasi isn’t sure what she plans to do in the short term of her retirement. For now, she wants to be home more and be more present for her family.
“To be honest, I’ve been so addicted to the game of basketball for the last 30 years, it’s all I thought about,” Taurasi said. “It’s all I prepared for. It’s the thing that motivated me to become a better person every day. And the last couple of weeks I’ve really understood what it really means to be home and be present. I was home before, but my mind was always thinking about the next game, the next season, the next free agency signing, all the things that when you’re on a team and you really care, all the things that wake you up in the morning.
“Now it’s my turn to repay all that to them. And as far as what I’m going to do, I really don’t know.”
Getting involved in basketball in some way, potentially with the Mercury or the WNBA, could be on the table, as well.
“Obviously the WNBA, and, more specifically, being here in Phoenix, is something that if it’s possible, I would love to be involved in some way, somehow,” Taurasi said. “I think the game is going in such a great direction.
“There’s such energy and momentum that it’s the one thing that I know probably better than anything, and that’s basketball. So, hopefully I can use some of that expertise in a way to help in any way, especially here.”
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