One of the greatest basketball players of all-time is officially calling it a career, as Diana Taurasi announced in an interview with TIME that she would not be returning for a 21st season with the Phoenix Mercury. Taurasi opted against the farewell tour, instead letting her body tell her it was time to walk away when January 1 arrived and she just didn’t feel the drive to begin her usual work ramping up for the season.
“I just didn’t have it in me,” Taurasi told TIME. “That was pretty much when I knew it was time to walk away. …Mentally and physically, I’m just full. That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”
Taurasi has a strong claim to the GOAT title in women’s basketball. She won three national titles at UConn, three WNBA titles with the Mercury, six EuroLeague titles, and six Olympic gold medals. She’s the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history with 10,646 points, more than 3,000 clear of second place. She made 14 All-WNBA teams (10 first-team), won Rookie of the Year in 2004, the league’s MVP award in 2009, and two Finals MVP awards. There have been better peaks but no player has sustained excellence like Taurasi, who averaged 14.9 points per game at 42 years old this past season.
Finally, after all those years, including 11 seasons overlapping between WNBA seasons and EuroLeague seasons in Russia and Turkey (she sat out the 2015 season after being paid to by her Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg), Taurasi is ready for the next chapter of her life. She told TIME she would shift her attention to her family, with her wife and two children, but that she wasn’t fully certain what was next for her.
“That’s the question that I still don’t have an answer for,” said Taurasi. “I really enjoy taking my kids to school, being home when they’re home, not leaving for a week at a time.”
There will undoubtedly be plenty of opportunities for Taurasi to remain part of the game of basketball, whether with a team, the league, or a broadcaster, but for right now she’s planning on taking a “sabbatical” and for the first time in more than 25 years, we won’t be able to watch one of basketball’s greatest competitors play the game.
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