'If This Is It’: Diana Taurasi bows out of Los Angeles one final time
'If This Is It’: Diana Taurasi bows out of Los Angeles one final time
The Southern California native showed flashes of vulnerability in her postgame comments after the Phoenix Mercury's win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES – “If This Is It,” Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi played in her final regular season road game near the place where it all began.
With her family sitting in the front row of the appreciative Crypto.com Arena crowd, Taurasi, 42, put a potential bow tie on her time playing in the City of Angels.
The Chino native and Don Antonio Lugo High School graduate admitted to a “nerve-racking” last couple of weeks after the Mercury teased Taurasi potentially retiring last week with a social media post captioned “If This Is It” that featured a highlight montage of Taurasi’s 20-year career and advertised tickets for the team’s then two remaining home games.
After the original post that brought a bevy of emotions to Taurasi and Mercury fans near and far, the Mercury have since turned the “If This Is It” slogan into a full-on marketing campaign.
Desert Wave Media asked Taurasi after Tuesday’s game how much of a say she had in the “If This Is It,” marketing campaign:
"It’s something that as a team, and especially when you've been somewhere for 20 years, it’s conversations that we’ve had.
“I'm grateful that they’re able to have these conversations and let me really do it the way I want to do it," she said. "I've talked to a lot of people, and someone once told me, 'You don't get to pick your ending sometimes.' So, when it ends, it ends. Twenty years later or whatever it may be, it's been a fun ride."
The WNBA’s all-time leading scorer again did not definitively say whether or not “If This Is It.” She also showed not every story receives a Hollywood ending while later showing signs of vulnerability on Tuesday.
Taurasi finished with 13 points, five assists and three rebounds in Phoenix’s 85-81 win after a slow start. She missed her first five shots and started 1-of-8 from the field before scoring 10 points in the third quarter to help the Mercury outscore the Sparks 28-10 in the period.
"I don't know," Taurasi said when asked if she is sure this is it.
“The last couple of weeks have been a little nerve-racking for myself. I don't want to make any emotional, rash decisions. I know the end is near. When that is, I don't know.
"I've always been a person that just concentrates on what's next. And that's practice (on Wednesday) and then (against) Seattle on Thursday. I guess when the season's over, I'll reflect and I'll get advice from the people that are close to my heart and who have been with me since Day 1. So you never know but who knows."
The Mercury (19-20) have already clinched a playoff berth and are locked into finishing as the No. 7 seed and playing the Minnesota Lynx in the first round. The Mercury will begin the playoffs on Sunday on the road and will need to win one of their two games in Minnesota to get a home playoff game at Footprint Center in the best-of-three first round series.
Phoenix wraps up the regular season vs. Seattle on Thursday.
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