Diana Lorena Taurasi is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is thought to be one of the best women’s basketball players of all time.
In the 2004 WNBA draft, Phoenix picked her as the first player taken. Taurasi has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award, three WNBA titles, a record-setting five Olympic gold medals, the WNBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2009, two WNBA Finals MVP Awards, five scoring titles, and three FIBA World Cups.
She has also been chosen for ten WNBA All-Star teams and fourteen All-WNBA teams (including ten first-team selections). In 2011, fans voted her one of the Top 15 WNBA Players of All Time.
In 2016 and 2021, she will be on the league’s 20th and 25th-anniversary teams, the WNBA Top [email protected] and The W25, respectively. Also in 2021, fans chose her as the best player in the league’s history.
Taurasi became the WNBA’s all-time top scorer on June 18, 2017. On June 27, 2021, she became the first player to score more than 9,000 points.
Kobe Bryant gave her the nickname “White Mamba” because she likes to score when it really matters. Taurasi is one of 11 women who have won an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA title, a gold medal at the FIBA World Cup, and a WNBA title.
A Brief Overview of Diana Taurasi’s
Taurasi was born on June 11, 1982, in Glendale, California. She and her older sister, Jessika, grew up in Chino, California. Mario, her father, was born in Argentina and played soccer professionally in Italy.
Her mother, Liliana, was also born in Argentina, but she moved to the United States with Mario before Taurasi was born. Taurasi went to high school at Don Antonio Lugo, where she played basketball.
As a high school player, her skills were widely recognized. In 2000, she won the Cheryl Miller Award and was named the National High School Player of the Year by Parade Magazine.
She was named the MVP in the WBCA High School All-America Game and ranked fourth in California state history in terms of overall scoring.
Taurasi went to the University of Connecticut after high school and led the team to three straight NCAA championships. Taurasi won a lot of awards and praise while she was there.
She won the Honda Sports Award in 2003 and 2004 and was named the Associated Press Player of the Year in 2003. She was also well-liked by the state of Connecticut, and state senator Thomas Gaffey praised her skills.
Diana Taurasi Net Worth & Salary
Diana Taurasi will have a net worth of $3.5 million in 2023. Her net worth comes from the money she makes as a professional basketball player. Her team, the Phoenix Mercury, gives her a salary of $500,000 a year. People say that she makes about $500,000 a year.
Home and Property of Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi is an athlete and a basketball player who was born in the United States. Diana Taurasi was born in Glendale on June 11, 1982.
Sources say that Diana Taurasi’s net worth in 2022 will be about $3.5 million. This well-known person has made a good amount of money from what she does.
The Career of Diana Taurasi’s
After she was done with college, Taurasi was picked first overall by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2004 WNBA Draft. The previous year, the team’s record was 8-26, which was not good.
Taurasi scored 22 points in her first game, and she averaged 17 points for the rest of the season. Taurasi was named to the Western Conference All-Star team and won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award, even though the Mercury didn’t make the playoffs that year.
The next season, she scored 16 points per game on average, but she also hurt her ankle. She was picked as an All-Star, but the Mercury didn’t make the playoffs again. Before the next season, Paul Westhead, an NBA coach, took over as the Mercury’s new coach.
Cappie Pondexter, who was also a star rookie, was also added to the team. The Mercury was expected to do well next season thanks to Taurasi and another star player, Penny Taylor.
Taurasi did very well under Westhead’s coaching, and the 2006 season was a big one for him. She had the most points in the league and broke the record for most points in a season.
She scored more than 25 points per game on average, and she scored 47 points in a game against the Houston Comets that went into three overtime. She also made 121 three-point shots in one season, which was a WNBA record.
But the team still didn’t make the playoffs. The next year, in 2007, the Mercury finally made it to the WNBA playoffs. They even made it to the Finals, where they met the reigning champions, the Detroit Shock.
Taylor and Pondexter, along with Taurasi, led the team to victory. In 2009, the Mercury went back to the finals and won again. Taurasi was named the Most Valuable Player of the WNBA Finals, making her one of only two players to win a season-scoring title, a season MVP award, a WNBA title, and the finals MVP in the same season.
Taurasi has been with the Mercury her whole WNBA career, even though she has had some injuries that have limited her ability to play. In 2012, she hurt herself several times and could only play in eight games.
Then, she hurt her hip flexor and had to sit out for the rest of the season. With a 7-27 record that season, the Mercury were the second-worst team in the league. But in 2013, she went back out on the court and led her team to the playoffs.
In May 2017, she signed a new contract with Mercury for several more years. In the same month, she was the first player in league history to get 7,000 points, 1,500 rebounds, and 1,500 assists.
In June of that same year, she became the league’s all-time leading scorer. Taurasi has also played for the United States in the Women’s Olympics Basketball Teams in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016. She helped the team win the gold medal in all four games.
Taurasi has also had a successful career overseas, where he usually played for teams from Russia and Turkey. Because the European leagues played on different days, she was usually able to play both in the U.S. and in Europe.
However, in 2015, the UMMC Ekaterinburg team from Russia paid Taurasi to sit out her WNBA season in order to rest in hopes that she would help them secure a championship in Europe. Taurasi ultimately retired from European competition in 2017.
