By: Eric Xu

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), has been the counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA) since its founding in 1996. Although they have not been as popular as the NBA, they still have had major moments in history, such as the one that just took place a few days ago.

Diana Taurasi was drafted to the Phoenix Mercury in 2003. Since then, she proved her dominance on the court by winning the “WNBA Rookie of the Year Award, three WNBA championships, a historic five Olympic gold medals, one WNBA Most Valuable Player Award, two WNBA Finals MVP Awards, and five scoring titles.” These are some of the best statistics out of all the WNBA players ever, but it would not be noticeable enough until she did something no one else had ever done.

On August 3rd, 2023, Diana scored 10,000 points for the Phoenix Mercury. She was 41 years old at the time and has proven herself as one of the best players ever. Standing at only 6 feet, she averaged 21.6 points per game this season and dominated the court. She led her team to multiple championships and is arguably the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T) of women’s basketball. Currently, she is almost 3,000 points ahead of the second all time scorer, Tina Thompson, who is currently retired.

Diana Taurasi has shown the WNBA how dominant she is at this sport. This event will go down in history and inspire others to follow her tracks.

Citations:

● https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-08-03/diana-taurasi-first-player-wnba-history-10-000-points

● https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/diana-taurasi-becomes-first-wnba-player-reach-10000-points-rcna98117

● https://olympics.com/en/news/diana-taurasi-points-tracker-wnba-top-scorer-career-milestone

● https://www.wnba.com/player/100940/diana-taurasi