New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Charles, Taurasi teaming up for first time in WNBA
UConn greats Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles are two of the best to ever play women’s basketball.
Taurasi is the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer with 9,174 points. Charles is second all-time in the league with 3,391 career rebounds.
Charles is No. 1 on UConn’s all-time rebounder list with 1,367 during her four years in Storrs. Taurasi is No. 2 on the program’s all-time assist list with 648.
The two were part of five of UConn’s 11 national championships.
When playing together, they have won six gold medals for USA basketball — three Olympics and three FIBA World Cup.
This summer the duo will team up for the first time in the WNBA with hopes of getting Phoenix back to the Finals after falling to last year’s champion, Chicago.
“In this league we all know there’s a couple factors that you always need. You need health, usually the most healthy team at the end of the year wins, the most talented team, and can you like each other and play as a group?” Taurasi said Wednesday during the Mercury’s media day. “You add Tina who has consistently been the hardest post player to guard in our league, along with BG (Brittney Griner) obviously. You start fantasizing a little bit of the possibilities.”
Taurasi, 39, was first overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft, becoming UConn’s second top pick after Sue Bird went No. 1 in 2002. Phoenix built its franchise around the 6-foot guard —Taurasi has led the Mercury to three WNBA Championships (2007, 2009 and 2014), and was named the 2004 Rookie of the Year and the 2009 MVP along with being a 10-time AllStar.
So when will the mom of two hang up her sneakers? Taurasi, whose wife Penny Taylor gave birth to a daughter in October, isn’t thinking about retirement just yet.
“When you’ve been doing something your whole life, like I have, it’s just not a decision that I think about until it’s literally time to go,” she said. “I’m still in the mindset of trying to get better, to improve as an individual, try to come back to training camp and be better, looking at the season as another challenge, so I really don’t think about that as a daily basis … I’m not ignorant with how old I am and the things that I’ve done, but I’m still very present in the things that I’m doing right now.”
Last fall, many speculated Taurasi and Bird would
retire together following a postgame moment in Seattle when the two swapped jerseys after the Mercury’s victory over the Storm in the second round of the playoffs. Bird has yet to confirm that this season will be her last, however; she did say the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games was her final Olympics.
In Tokyo, Taurasi left the door open for competing in 2024 in Paris.
“I still enjoy it. I really do enjoy it. I have a great group of people that I work with that really help me see the game very simple again and to do things that will help me get better,” Taurasi said. “It’s a mental competition that I literally have with myself every single day. I probably come home every single day and I’m like, ‘Why’d I do that for? I can be on the couch hanging out.’ But I’m an addict. What can I say? ...
“When I’m done playing, I’m just gonna stop playing. I’m not gonna ease my way out. I plan on playing for a while. I just want to play. When I suck, I won’t play.”
Following Taurasi, Charles was UConn’s next No. 1 overall draft selection in 2010. The 33-year-old center started her professional career with the Connecticut Sun, earning the 2010 Rookie of the Year and the 2012 MVP. Charles spent four years in Uncasville before spending the next six seasons in her hometown of New York with the Liberty.
She was traded to Washington ahead of the 2020 season but sat out the WNBA’s ‘Wubble’ season in Florida after she was granted a medical exemption because her extrinsic asthma put her at risk for COVID-19.
In 2021, the eight-time All-Star led the league in scoring (23.4 points per game) and was tied for third in rebounding (9.6 per game).
Charles, still on the quest for her first WNBA title, signed with the Mercury this past winter. It’s the first time she will be teammates with Taurasi in the WNBA after playing against her for a decade.
“I’m only going to get better,” Charles said. “It’s been great over the years to hear from players who have played with her and they always say, ‘My favorite player to play with is Diana. She got me better. She pushed me, held me accountable.’ ... So I know that she’s gonna hold me to a high standard on what she needs from me in order for us to be successful.
“I’ve been her shadow ever since being here. If she’s in the training room at this time, I’m gonna be there. If she’s on the court at this time, I want to shoot with her. I’m just so fortunate to play alongside the Kobe Bryant of our league. I’m very thankful.”
With Phoenix’s go-to center Brittney Griner detained in Russia, Charles will look to carry a lot of the frontcourt load for the Mercury this season.
“Tina just changes the whole dynamic of how we’re gonna play,” said Taurasi, in her 17th season in the WNBA. “She’s one of the best back-to-the-basket players that there is in this league and the world. I mean, literally, Tina is gonna really dictate what she wants to do in every possession, she’s gonna have that freedom and that’s the beauty about her. She really is that dialed in where on every given possession she can be the most unstoppable player in the game which we’re gonna need.”
The Mercury face Seattle Thursday night in Arizona for a preseason matchup. The game will feature a handful of former Huskies outside of Charles and Taurasi: Bird, Breanna Stewart, Evina Westbrook and Kia Nurse will also be in attendance. Seattle’s Gabby Williams is reported to return to camp later in the week following her return from overseas competition.
Charles says she’s excited to team up with Taurasi and become a better player both on and off the court because of her.
“Any time that you play with Diana, she’s going hard,” Charles said. “If her mother was on the other side, she would go at her mother because she’s an opponent. It doesn’t matter who you are. I had asked her what gives her that drive and, ‘Why are you so motivated even in practice?’ and she just cares about the product that she’s putting out on the court.
“And so for me that’s the same way that I try to approach the game, just caring about the product I put on the court, just knowing the mindset that I have to have and just trying to be a great leader, just be leading by example because that’s exactly what Diana has done.”