The Phoenix Mercury have been marketing Thursday’s regular-season finale as the potential last chance to see Diana Taurasi play in the WNBA, but the 20-year veteran isn’t sure when she will step away from the court.
When asked after Tuesday night’s 85-81 win over the host Los Angeles Sparks if this season “was it” for her, Taurasi responded with the following:
“I don’t know. The last couple of weeks have been a little nerve-racking for myself. I don’t want to make any emotional, rash decisions. I know the end is near. When that is, I don’t know.”
The seventh-seeded Mercury (19-20) have one regular-season game left, Thursday against the Seattle Storm (24-15), before visiting the second-seeded Minnesota Lynx (30-9) in the playoffs Saturday. The Mercury would have to win at least one of the first two games in the best-of-three series in Minneapolis to ensure a return to the Footprint Center.
“I’ve always been a person that just concentrates on what’s next. And that’s practice tomorrow and then (versus) Seattle on Thursday,” Taurasi, 42, said after Tuesday’s game, which was played not too far from where she played high school ball in Chino, Calif. “I guess when the season’s over, I’ll reflect and I’ll get advice from the people that are closest to my heart.”
Taurasi expressed appreciation that the Mercury — who chose her with the No. 1 pick in the 2004 draft — have not pressured her to make a decision on the future of her career.
“Especially when you’ve been somewhere for 20 years … I’m grateful that (we’re) able to have these conversations and let me really do it the way I want to do it,” she said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, and someone once told me, ‘You don’t get to pick your ending sometimes.’ So, when it ends, it ends. It’s been a fun ride.”
Taurasi is a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP and the league’s regular-season MVP in 2009.
In 564 career games, all with the Mercury, Taurasi has averaged 18.9 points, 4.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
