Diana Taurasi looks back on the loyalty, relationships developed during Mercury career

Diana Taurasi brought three championships to Phoenix, was an 11-time All-Star, 14-time All-WNBA honoree, all-time leading scorer and the 2009 MVP. But the most important part to her, the fact that all 20 years were spent with the Mercury.

“Loyalty is a two-way street. As a player, you want to spend your whole career somewhere. But that doesn’t always work out. Everything has to align, and to me, the loyalty part is just as important as the championships,” Taurasi told Bickley & Marotta on Friday, ahead of her Mercury Ring of Honor induction on Sunday. “Knowing that I was here for 20 years, and the relationships (and) the memories.

“That’s really the glue that holds us all together. It’s all those memories.”

Taurasi told the story when she knew she’d be in the Valley for a long time. It happened after the Mercury drafted her with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft, and she went into Jerry Colangelo’s office, who was an owner of the team at the time.

“The first day I got to Phoenix, I went into Jerry Colangelo’s office, and he goes, ‘You know, D, I heard your mom’s from Argentina, and I heard your dad’s from Italy,'” Taurasi said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, you know, I’m kind of a mut.’ He goes, ‘From here on out, you’re 100% Italian.’

“So, I knew there was no way I was leaving the desert.”

Staying with a team for your entire career is one thing, but to accomplish what she did throughout her career is another entirely.

Taurasi said it’ll be an “honor” to see her name go up into the rafters, with the history of great basketball players Phoenix has.

“I felt the love from day one. I think we’re (one of) the most underrated sports towns in America,” Taurasi said. “When you think about the history of basketball in Phoenix, you look up in the rafters downtown — those are some of the names that I was lucky enough to play with, to play against, to watch. Some of them were some of my biggest heroes growing up.

“When you talk about Steve (Nash), the (Charles) Barkley years and Bridget Pettis. I mean, being an L.A. kid, I resonated with Phoenix because of them, the way they played, the way their arena felt. There was always a sense of this was a place I could be for a long time. It’s always an honor.”

Kobe Bryant gave Taurasi the nickname White Mamba, and Taurasi credits that elite competitiveness in her game to the court being the one place she could prove herself.

“I’m a kid from immigrants. You would leave the house, and you didn’t think you were anything. You were always trying to prove yourself,” Taurasi said. “My parents didn’t speak the language. I always felt out of place and the basketball court was the one place where I could prove myself and feel like I was a part of something.

“Sometimes it was just as easy as if you get a nudge, or someone would say something. All those things would just ignite me.”

Taurasi gave the Valley 20 years of elite basketball, winning Rookie of the Year in 2004 and earning a trip to the All-Star Game in 2024 (her final season).

Ahead of her induction into the Mercury’s Ring of Honor, Taurasi wants fans to know she was always competing at her highest level.

“I hope people would come to the gym and know that I was going to give it all,” Taurasi said. “You know, good, bad or ugly, I’m there to win, to compete for them.”

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