Taurasi adds to resume with scoring mark

PHOENIX » Diana Taurasi took a high screen, dribbled around a defender and stretched her long right arm out to lay the ball off the glass and into the basket.

The horn sounded, stopping the game, and players from both teams hugged and congratulated the Phoenix Mercury star. Former NBA great Kobe Bryant, there to watch Taurasi make history, stood and applauded as Mercury coach Sandy Brondello presented her with the historymaking ball at center court.

With that one basket Sunday, Taurasi became the WNBA’s all-time scoring leader, adding another highlight to an already sterling resume while boosting her case as the greatest player in women’s basketball history.

But that’s a debate for someone else to settle. Brash and fiery on the court, Taurasi would prefer to defer when it comes to her place in the annals of the game.

“When you get to my age, you can’t look back, you can’t look forward,” she said Wednesday. “If anything, I’m pretty proud to play this much basketball well into my college and professional career. I’ve been really lucky: one, being really healthy and two, being around really good people. When I look at it that way, I feel like I’m the luckiest basketball player of all time.”

The case for best player of all-time is pretty strong.

Taurasi was one of the best players in NCAA history, leading Connecticut to three national titles. She was the WNBA’s rookie of the year in 2004, won three WNBA titles with the Mercury and was the finals MVP twice. Taurasi was the WNBA MVP in 2009, earned five scoring titles, was named to the allWNBA team nine times and won four Olympic medals.

She’s also dominated overseas, earning five Euroleague titles while being league MVP twice and finals MVP twice.

Taurasi added another milestone Sunday in her hometown, eclipsing Tina Thompson’s all-time WNBA scoring mark of 7,488 points in Los Angeles to add another record to her long list of achievements.

“Diana is one of the best players to ever play the game and definitely one of my favorites,” Thompson said after Taurasi broke her record.

Taurasi figures to keep adding to the scoring record for several more years.

ROSS D. FRANKLIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (3) celebrates late in the second half of a WNBA game against the Connecticut Sun in Phoenix. Still thriving at 35, a case could be made that the Mercury guard is the greatest player in women’s basketball history.