The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
18 and she likes it
Durable UConn great Taurasi excited for WNBA season
UConn legend Diana Taurasi is entering her 18th WNBA season.
And unlike her friend and former college teammate Sue Bird, she’s not sure when her final season will be.
“I debate every day whether I’m going to come back, and I keep coming back,” Taurasi said Monday following the Phoenix Mercury’s first day of training camp. “I still have this competitive fire. I still love to play basketball. I still love coming to the gym.
“Things change as you get older, the work you have to put in gets harder, stuff you have to do off the court is just as important as being on the court and it really changed my daily life to be able to be here at 39 and competing and hopefully have a great year to help this team get back to where we’ve got to go and put up with these young kids.”
Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, is on the second year of a two-year super-max contract she signed with the Mercury in 2020.
Bird, 41, put off retirement for another year with the Seattle Storm. Taurasi, 39, could continue to play beyond 2022.
She has the incentive of another WNBA title after the Mercury fell in last year’s finals to Chicago, ending the season with a 19-13 overall record. Taurasi will continue to lead Phoenix this summer while the team starts a new chapter with new players and a new coach.
“Everyone is really excited,” Taurasi said. “Obviously the way the year ended last year is still fresh in our minds and it’s something that we think about. … It’s good to have that in the back of your mind. It’s a new group so we have to find a way of getting to know each other. It’s a work in progress, but I think there’s a lot of excitement in the building.”
The Mercury face the season without star Brittney Griner, who is still being detained in Russia. The team also parted ways with former coach Sandy Brondello after eight years. Brondello, who now coaches the New York Liberty, was replaced by Vanessa Nygaard.
The new role is Nygaard’s first as
head coach within the WNBA after spending the 2021 season as an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces. The former Stanford Cardinal played five seasons in the WNBA (1999-2003) on four teams: Cleveland, Portland, Miami and Los Angeles.
“I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to lead this group, and I know I’m completely ready and it is an unusual situation, but I’m here for a reason,” Nygaard said Monday. “Something needed to change and I’m here to bring a little bit of change, a little bit different energy and hopefully take that last step that the team didn’t quite get last year.”
Also making her Mercury debut this season is former UConn great Tina Charles.
Phoenix signed Charles to a one-year contract in February following her standout season in Washington, when she was the league’s leading scorer (23.4 points). Charles, now with her fourth team in 12 years, remains on the hunt for her first WNBA championship ring.
“She’s one of my OGs,” Taurasi said. “I’ve known Tina for a long time, we’ve obviously played USA basketball together for a long time and played overseas together. She’s an amazing human being, and not to mention how amazing she is on the court. She just brings a dynamic that we haven’t had in that boat where she can stretch the defense, so I’m excited to get on the court with her and get that synergy going.”
Charles and Taurasi will be tasked with carrying the bulk of the Mercury’s oncourt production this season until Griner is able to return.
Griner led Phoenix with 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds last season. She was detained in February in Moscow, where she was competing overseas, at an airport by Russian authorities after they allegedly found cannabis oil in vape cartridges in her luggage.
Few details about Griner’s legal status in Russia have been made public. On March 18, the AP reported Griner’s detainment was extended until May 19. It’s unknown if or when Griner will be able to return and play in the 2022 WNBA season.
“It’s tough. We’re all concerned about her,” Nygaard said. “That’s not just your teammate, not just somebody they know, but also their friend, so it is something we think about and we pray to make sure that she is safe, that she comes home quickly.
“We feel confident that everything is being done to make sure she can get back as quickly as possible, that everybody is working behind the scenes to make that happen and we’ll be ready when she gets back. Just her safe return is really what we are focused on.”
The Mercury will face Seattle (April 28) and Los Angeles (April 30) during the preseason before opening the regular season May 6 against Las Vegas.