Diana Taurasi announces retirement

Diana Taurasi is hanging it up. On Tuesday, the longtime superstar and UConn legend announced her retirement from basketball in an interview with TIME.

“Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” she told the magazine. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”

Taurasi knew she’d reached the end of New Year’s Day. While she normally begins her build-up to a new WNBA season on that date, “I just didn’t have it in me,” this year, she explained.

“That was pretty much when I knew it was time to walk away,” Taurasi says in time.

She ends her career as arguably the greatest player in both the history of the sport and the UConn program. A native of Chino, California, Taurasi arrived in Storrs as a freshman in the fall of 2000. She departed in 2004 as a three-time national champion, two-national player of the year and three-time All-American.

While most of the Huskies’ title-winning teams did so with star-studded rosters, Taurasi didn’t play with a single other All-American during her junior or senior year and still followed up the 2002 championship with back-to-back crowns in 2003-04.

Taurasi finished with 2,156 career points (10th-most in program history), made 318 triples (third) and 648 assists (third).

Selected No. 1 in the 2004 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, Taurasi spent her entire 20-year career with the team. She won three WNBA championships (2007, ‘09, ‘14) and is one of four players ever to win multiple Finals MVP honors. Taurasi was named the league’s MVP in 2009 and went to 11 All-Star games.

On the international stage, Taurasi became the first basketball player ever to win six Olympic gold medals and also has three World Cups under her belt.

“It’s hard to put into words, it really is, what this means,” Geno Auriemma said in a release. “When someone’s defined the game, when someone’s had such an impact on so many people and so many places. You can’t define it with a quote. It’s a life that is a novel, it’s a movie, it’s a miniseries, it’s a saga. It’s the life of an extraordinary person who, I think, had as much to do with changing women’s basketball as anyone who’s ever played the game. 

“In my opinion, what the greats have in common is, they transcend the sport and become synonymous with the sport. For as long as people talk about college basketball, WNBA basketball, Olympic basketball: Diana is the greatest winner in the history of basketball, period. I’ve had the pleasure of being around her for a lot of those moments, and she’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever coached. I’m happy for her and her family. At the same time, I’m sad that I’ll never get to see her play again, but I saw more than most.”

Auriemma also told time that Taurasi is the greatest player in the history of the women’s basketball.

While Taurasi only just announced her decision to retire on Tuesday, she seemed to be trending in that direction at the end of this past season. The Mercury celebrated their final home game as if it were her final time on the court with custom t-shirts, a curtain call and a small ceremony postgame.

Plenty showed up for the occasion, too. Geno Auriemma, Chris Dailey and Morgan Valley all traveled from Storrs, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe were in attendance, as were Taurasi’s parents.

Next, she’ll have to wait four years before becoming eligible for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame but will be a lock for the first ballot. Taurasi’s No. 3 is also guaranteed to be retired in the rafters of Gampel Pavilion.