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PHOENIX — Few take to the hardwood like Diana Taurasi.

For six Olympic games, she did so wearing the No. 12 under the letters U-S-A and won six gold medals. In 12 seasons overseas, she wore Nos. 13 and 32 while winning six Euroleague titles during stints with Spartak Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg.

And for two decades, she defined the WNBA while wearing one number — No. 3 — for one franchise, the Phoenix Mercury. Sunday afternoon, the Mercury honored her by raising that No. 3 to the rafters. And once again she took the court as no one else could — this time wearing an all-black suit with a jeweled brooch — and delivered a speech encapsulating it all.

“Driving to the game today, I didn’t know whether I was going to suit up, whether it was my funeral or a celebration,” Taurasi said with a grin. “I’ve come to realize it’s all of it and it’s amazing.”

Taurasi exemplified excellence in the WNBA for 20 years.

She became the first player in the league to eclipse 10,000 points, then added 646 more before retiring. She won three WNBA titles. She was an 11-time All-Star, the 2009 MVP, a five-time scoring champion, a two-time finals MVP and 10-time All-WNBA first-teamer. Eighteen months after retiring on Feb. 25, 2025, the Mercury officially retired her jersey number.

A legendary night for a legendary player.

After 20 seasons in the WNBA, Diana Taurasi’s No. 3 is officially in the Phoenix rafters.

🎥 @WNBA pic.twitter.com/Md0mnzbqJn

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 17, 2026

“Today feels different,” Taurasi said before the Mercury’s 88-85 loss to the Portland Fire. “When your number goes up there, you can’t use it anymore. It’s done. So, if there was any little competitiveness still in me, I think today it goes up in the rafters with the number, and it feels really good to know that.”

The Mercury and the city of Phoenix spent the weekend celebrating the career of their adopted daughter.

On Thursday, a street outside of Mortgage Matchup Center was named “10646 Taurasi Way” in honor of her career point total. Taurasi partook in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for one of the three refurbished outdoor courts in the Phoenix area. A mural with her likeness was painted on a wall outside the arena.

The weekend culminated with Sunday’s ceremony and Taurasi’s induction into the franchise’s Ring of Honor. She joins Mercury legends Cheryl Miller, Jennifer Gillom, Bridget Pettis, Michele Timms and Penny Taylor, who is Taurasi’s wife.

A wide variety of noteworthy figures sat courtside for the game, including 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, four-time WNBA champion Sheryl Swoopes, Arizona Cardinals Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Taurasi’s former teammate Brittney Griner, who helped Taurasi lead the Mercury to the 2014 WNBA championship.

Team owner Mat Ishbia, who also owns the NBA’s Suns, welcomed Taurasi onto the court at halftime. Her parents, sister, wife and children were there waiting for her. Ishbia delivered a brief speech before passing the mic to Pettis, a former teammate of Taurasi’s, who accepted her into the Ring of Honor. Then it was time for Taurasi’s speech, which she called an “appetizer” ahead of a lengthier celebration held after the game.

Taurasi thanked Ishbia and the organization for valuing the Mercury with treatment and respect equal to the Suns. She then spoke directly to Mercury fans and Phoenix residents. She shared the story of her first conversation with former Mercury owner Jerry Colangelo and said she knew she would never leave the desert.

“This place made me who I am,” Taurasi said. “You guys let me grow. You let me fall. You let me get back up and you gave me the space to become who I am today.”

But after the game, Taurasi really let it rip in a ceremony that lasted roughly an hour and a half, with Taurasi’s speech accounting for just over 30 minutes. Seemingly more than 80 percent of the sold-out crowd stayed for its entirety. Twenty players, coaches and executives spanning the length of her WNBA career met her at center court with flowers.

Taylor, the only other player who was part of all three Mercury titles, recited a poem, imploring everyone in attendance to listen as she spoke about the person, not the player. When it was finally Taurasi’s turn to speak, the arena was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, aside from the boisterous laughter and hearty cheers when she delivered one of her infamous Taurasi-isms.

For the roughly 30 minutes that Taurasi spoke, she shared details about the grind of her career and the joys of doing it with teammates who became family. She joked about the bad coaches and about the good ones, sharing how NBA and WNBA championship-winning coach Paul Westhead would sometimes walk into the locker room wearing two different-colored shoes before talking about Shakespeare.

At one point, a fan yelled, “I’m going to be a basketball player.”

To which Taurasi replied, “You do it, girl. There are three outdoor basketball courts, go hit ‘em.”

The common thread from all those who spoke about Taurasi, whether close friends or on-court foes, was the competitive fire that fueled her success. They spoke about her ruthlessness on the court, and about her kindness and sincerity off it.

For 30 minutes, she gave fans all sides.

The competitor.

The comedian.

The family woman.

And the GOAT.

“Throughout my career, it wasn’t about winning in this weird way,” Taurasi said. “That didn’t make me happy. The winning or the losing, it didn’t motivate me more or less. So, once I retired, I didn’t have this urge to be competitive. I didn’t have this urge to prove myself. Hopefully, I still treat the day the same way, where whoever I come in contact with, I give them my attention, I give them my energy.”

Annie Costabile is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the WNBA and women’s basketball at large. Before joining The Athletic, she worked as a women’s sports reporter for Front Office Sports and, prior to that, was a sports reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times for seven years, where she covered the Chicago Sky and women’s sports. Annie also served as the high school preps and recruiting editor at The Clarion-Ledger. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, based in Brooklyn.