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PHOENIX MERCURY

Mercury legend Diana Taurasi honored with Icon Award at 2025 ESPYS

Mercury legend Diana Taurasi during the ESPYS was honored with the Icon Award in recognition of her careers and major impact on sports.

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Phoenix Mercury legend Diana Taurasi and retired U.S. national women’s soccer team star Alex Morgan on Wednesday shared the Icon Award in recognition of their careers and major impact on sports.

The women touched their trophies together in a toast during the ESPYS.

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“Our mission has always been very similar,” Morgan said. “We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it just as a generation before us did. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Taurasi, who retired in February after a 20-year basketball career, mentioned her parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina. She also had words for the next generation.

“Keep going, don’t wait for someone to hand you anything, outwork them, be loyal, bring that damn fire every day,” she said. “We’re proof you can do it. We did it our way. No shortcuts, no apologies, and no regrets.”

A documentary series on Taurasi is set to air Aug. 7 on Amazon Prime.

Pat Tillman Award for Service

Former athletes David Walters and Erin Regan accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service, given to those who have served in a way that honors the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger.

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Walters, 37, earned a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a seven-time world championships medalist. He’s now a Los Angeles city firefighter.

Regan, 45, was a Wake Forest soccer player who spent one season in the pros before retiring to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Both Walters and Regan fought the deadly and destructive wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.

Comments

4 Comments

degasu
degasu 1 year ago

By "men", I mean men. I mean the only actual definition of men there is, which is biological.

AZ Native
AZ Native 1 year ago

By "men", I assume you mean transgender athletes. Though the comparison is debatable, yes, they both support trans athletes.

C
c b 1 year ago

degasu: Regardless of where one stands on the issue, I doubt that transgender athletes are much of a threat to professional sports. Less than 1% of the entire U.S. population identifies as transgender, and transgender athletes are obviously a small fraction of that figure. Hardly a destructive force.