WNBA

Watching Taurasi’s WNBA exploits in Connecticut was a treat

by
Gerry deSimas, Jr., Collinsville Press
February 25, 2025

Former UConn star Diana Taurasi runs the baseline to get to the basket in Phoenix’s WNBA playoff win over Connecticut in 2018.

One of the greatest women’s players to play the game, arguably the best player to ever play the game, retired on Tuesday. Former UConn star Diana Taurasi confirmed to Time Magazine that she is retiring from professional basketball.

Getting the opportunity to watch Taurasi play was always a treat and one of the inspirations to watch the Connecticut Sun at the Mohegan Sun Arena when they joined the WNBA in 2003.

I didn’t have the professional relationship that many writers, players and coaches did with Taurasi. I was just a writer, and photographer in later years, that enjoyed watching her play with such skill and precision.

As a reporter, a Taurasi press conference was always a great listen. Seldom would she hold back – similar to her collegiate coach Geno Auriemma.

In the early years of the Sun’s tenure in Connecticut, my ticket to covering a Connecticut Sun game was through the visiting team. I would offer to cover the game in Uncasville as a freelance writer for newspapers in Arizona, Sacramento, Houston, Seattle, Washington, Detroit, Charlotte, Cleveland and Minnesota.

Few newspapers send beat writers on the road in the early 2000s and I would provide a bit more detail and a few quotes from the visiting team than they could get from the brief story in the Associated Press.

I secured a few assignments for the Arizona Republic. In 2008, my story for the Republic started with this:

The game notes by Mercury coach Corey Gaines were neatly written on the whiteboard in the locker room before Sunday’s meeting with the Connecticut Sun. A few minutes before the Mercury hit the floor, guard Diana Taurasi hopped up, grabbed a marker and wrote one word in giant letters over his notes. Energy.

“Games like this are decided by energy,” Taurasi said after the Mercury defeated the Sun, 87-80, thanks in large part to a strong first quarter.

In those days, reporters were allowed to interview players in the locker room. Taurasi finished with a game-high 25 points on that June afternoon with three 3-shots in the first quarter.

Legendary WNBA star Diana Taurasi, who won three NCAA championships with UConn, made her season debut in 2019 at the Mohegan Sun Arena after missing 13 games with a back injury. As usual, she received a rousing cheer during pre-game introductions.

In 2006, the WNBA All-Star Game was the Mohegan Sun. I had the opportunity to see the playful side of Taurasi in an open practice the day before the game. Part of what I wrote for Connecticut Sports Online:

There were no wind sprints during these practice sessions. Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi invited fans out of the stands to shoot jump shots. She even laid a $100 bill behind the three-point line and challenged 8-year-old Jordan Swoopes, the son of West All-Star Sheryl Swoopes to hit a shot.

It was that kind of day during open practices Friday in preparation for the 2005 WNBA All-Star Game. “There is no pressure,” West coach Anne Donovan of Seattle said. “It’s the one game of the year when there is no pressure.”

The Sun (12-3) will be represented by Nykesha Sales in her seventh All-Star appearance and Taj McWilliams-Franklin, making her fifth appearance. Former UConn stars Swin Cash (Detroit), Taurasi and Sue Bird (Seattle) will also be on the floor. Taurasi and Bird will play in the backcourt for the West.

Bird won the WNBA All-Star Challenge and $15,000 to go to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Bird beat out eight other All-Stars on a timed course that tested her dribbling, passing and shooting skills.

And the case of Jordan Swoopes. He missed his first shot but quickly grabbed another ball, drained the 3-pointer and celebrated with his beaming Mom, her teammates and the few hundred fans cheering. Taurasi gave him $20 for hitting the second shot.

Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi drives to the basket during a WNBA game in Uncasville in July 2024.

Connecticut Sun fans also saw Taurasi’s exceptional skill on the floor when she helped the Mercury beat the Sun in consecutive years (2017 and 2018) at the Mohegan Sun Arena in elimination games in the WNBA playoffs.

In 2018, Phoenix ignored the roaring crowd at the Mohegan Sun Arena and outscored the Sun, 12-2 in the final 3:53 of the contest to eliminate Connecticut and earn a berth in the WNBA semifinals against top-seeded Seattle.

“I think we relish those moments where it is really up to you if you want to keep playing,” said Taurasi, who also scored 27 points. “It’s up to you and it’s up to the group.”

It was another vintage performance by Taurasi.

In 2017, the Sun made the playoffs after a six-year drought but they stumbled against the Mercury in Uncasville.

The Mercury weren’t rattled by a 17-point deficit in the second quarter nor a 10-point deficit in the third quarter. Taurasi scored 23 points and Brittney Griner added 26 points and pulled down nine rebounds as Phoenix ended Connecticut’s season with an 88-83 victory in the second round of the WNBA playoffs.

“There comes a time in games if you are just going to lay down or fight back and try to get back into it and that moment we said let’s just go back take each possession and try to do our best and we did that and that turned the game around,” Taurasi said after the game.

Six-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi controls the ball against Connecticut in July 2024.

Taurasi’s last appearance at the Mohegan Sun Arena with the Mercury came in July. She welcomed old friends among the reporters interviewing her on the floor before the game. She discussed the possibility of retirement but didn’t tip her hand.

“I love everything about it,” Taurasi said referring to playing basketball. “We tend to ask that (retirement) question lightly.

She turned to one of the half dozen of Connecticut-based reporters chatting with her before the game.

“It’s your profession. You’ve done it all your life. Journalism,” she said. “Well on this side, it is all I’ve known since I was five and I am not going to make a rash decision on when to give it all up. That is something that will be (a) very personal (decision) with me and my family.”

Even as she prepared for the game, she took a minute to bring a smile to the faces of a young family.

Taurasi interrupted her pre-game warmups to say hi to a friend and his two young daughters. And they took a few photos with Taurasi’s arm around the shoulders of the two young girls. The smile on the the young girl’s face were broad, deep and sincere.