Which athletes are considered the greatest of all time continually permeate any discussion surrounding professional sports.
These discussions are challenging, as many factors, including which era one grew up in, will always be variables in how people qualify the GOAT of each sport.
In the WNBA, which is comparatively younger compared to other professional sports leagues across the United States with only 28 years of existence, several names are always thrown around in the greatest of all time discussion.
Many consider the GOAT Lisa Leslie , who is a two-time WNBA champion, a two-time Finals MVP, as well as a three-time MVP, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and an eight-time WNBA All-Star. Leslie did much in her 12-year career – all spent with her hometown Los Angeles Sparks – to get the league on the map and pave the way for today’s WNBA.
Others throw Candace Parker or Sheryl Swoops in the mix.
Parker, who announced her retirement from the WNBA in April , was a three-time champion across her 16-year career in the league. In Peyton Manning-esque fashion, Parker won a championship in the final year of her career just last season with the Las Vegas Aces. She was also a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time MVP.
A contemporary of Leslie, Swoops played in the WNBA from 1997 to 2007 and won four WNBA championships. She was a three-time MVP and six-time WNBA All-Star.
Even Sue Bird gets some people’s votes for the greatest WNBA player of all time.
Like Swoops, Bird was also a four-time WNBA champion, who finished her career in 2022. She was a 13-time All-Star for the Seattle Storm, won five gold medals during her storied Olympic career and was a two-time NCAA champion at UConn.
All of these GOAT candidates are members of respective WNBA anniversary teams.
Then there’s Diana Taurasi, who is set to begin play in yet another Olympic Games in Paris on July 29 . A gold medal with the United States women’s national basketball team would bring her tally to six.
Would that feat be enough to make her the undisputed greatest WNBA player of all time?
Diana Taurasi’s Impact On The WNBA
Rookie players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are undoubtedly taking the WNBA by storm, and established superstars like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas and Sabrina Ionescu are undoubtedly the faces of the league.
Despite all these up and comers, however, even at age 42, the league is still Taurasi’s. Not only has she proved that by making her sixth Olympic roster, but she also showed that during the WNBA All-Star Game on July 20.
Taurasi’s Team USA ultimately lost against Arike Ogunbowale’s Team WNBA in a competitive 117-109 matchup, but there was a moment in the game where Taurasi showed the youngsters who was boss.
Amidst strong play from Team WNBA, Taurasi drew an and-one against Rookie of the Year candidate Clark with just under six minutes to play in the second quarter, proving in that moment, and for the time being, that the league still belongs to Taurasi.
Even beyond that isolated All-Star Game play, Taurasi has the credentials to give her the G.O.A.T title, and a gold medal in this year’s Olympics may just give her the nudge to surpass anyone else in the current conversation.
Taurasi is the WNBA all-time leading scorer with 10,388 points and counting. She has won three WNBA championships with the Phoenix Mercury and two Finals MVPs. She was the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2004, the league MVP in 2009 and this summer’s All-Star game marked her 11th all-time.
Taurasi was a member of the 15th, 20th and 25th WNBA anniversary teams, she sits fifth on the WNBA all-time assists list and has made the most 3-pointers in WNBA history with 1,418 and counting.
These accolades and records don’t even represent her collegiate career – which included three NCAA championships and two Naismith College Player of the Year awards – or her international professional career, which included six EuroLeague championships, seven Russian National League championships and three Russian Player of the Year awards.
Even Taurasi’s record at the Olympics, which this August may culminate in a record sixth gold medal , speaks for itself.
Taurasi won gold medals in Athens in 2004, in Beijing in 2008, in London in 2012, in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2020. She is just 109 points behind Leslie on the all-time Team USA women’s basketball team’s scoring list.
A gold medal in Paris would only elevate her already cemented legacy, and possibly put to bed any lingering GOAT conversations. After all, it is her last chance on the international stage.
“It’s definitely it for USA basketball,” Taurasi said in an interview with ESPN on July 25. “I’m 42, six Olympics, it’s just been such an honor to put that jersey on every single time.”
Taurasi will continue to be in any and all greatest female basketball player of all time conversations. Even 20 years after she jumped on the scene in the WNBA, she is still writing history for the league she has helped build.
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