I'm probably one of a smallish number of wnba fans on here who remembers the wnba without diana taurasi. I grew up in Portland & got to watch the Portland Fire lose a lot for the three seasons we had them. It wasn't a well-built team, though I didn't know that at 13, but I didn't care because it was in-person basketball. I still have the pin they gave out opening night. at the time, the league was still super obsessed with players appearing hetero, but we all knew, and as a butchy 13 year old who wore a basketball is life tshirt everywhere, that team was everything.
& it makes me think about how many kids grew up with that feeling about diana. how phoenix fans must have felt when they got to draft a player they knew was gonna define their franchise. how all the lesbians on the gossip boards doing the real detective work of figuring out league lesbians filled those boards about dt. fans didn't know what dt would do for the league in 2004, but we had a guess, and she more than surpassed our wildest hopes.
there was a before DT. and it was awesome. but dt has defined the last 20 years of basketball, too. not alone. but in an inescapable way.
dt has always been good about pointing backwards, acknowledging the women who came before -- their accomplishments, their records, their efforts to pave the way forward. the sheryls, the cynthias, the tinas, the dawns, the lisas. & I hope the players who come after her do the same, whether she has one more playoff run or five more seasons (dreaming big). I hope as fans, we do as well, just like I hope we continue to look at all the players who built this league up from year one.
she's the greatest of all time, not only because of the records she's crushed or all the must-win elimination games she's pulled her team through but because of who she's been to her teammates and all the other players around the league. she'll yap & she'll shit talk, but she also leads. I think about the recent interview with Tash where she talked about how much DT has taught her about leadership. I think about the interview with BG one of their early seasons playing in Russia together where BG talked about DT teaching her how to be off the court. DT was a hellion in her early days, too, and I hope when we talk about legacy, we don't sanitize those messy, human parts. Plenty of that advice was hard earned!
I've loved living in Arizona the last few years and getting to watch her play in person. I hope we get another season (and another). but even if we don't, it's been a gift to watch her redefine wnba records and carve out a legacy that makes her one of the very best in basketball.
