For Pride month, we’ve dedicated each day of June to an individual athlete or coach whose shining moment changed LGBTQ sports.
Today: Diana Taurasi, and August 11, 2013: the day the Phoenix Mercury guard made history by becoming the fastest WNBA player to score 6,000 points.
Some numbers are impressive all on their own: In only 291 career games, over more than 9,000 minutes of action, Diana Taurasi found her place in the WNBA record books by scoring her 6-thousandth point faster than any player in league history.
As our SB Nation sister site, the Bright Side of the Sun blog, reported on Aug. 12, 2013, Taurasi entered the game 14 points short of 6,000, and didn’t score her 14th point until midway through the third quarter. She ensured the Mercury were on course for a blowout win over the Tulsa Shock before her unassuming lay-up put her in the books.
As always, Taurasi was generous in sharing her accomplishment.
“You don’t get to 6,000 without great coaches, great teams, and great players around you,” said Taurasi after the game. “You don’t get there. You have to have great people around you every step of the way.”
The UConn alumna reached that milestone “just 1,288 points off of Tina Thompson, a mentor and idol for Taurasi, as the all-time leader in points scored [at that time],” reported Bright Side of the Sun.
She reached the 7,000-point mark in 112 games faster than Thompson, and 80 fewer games than Tamika Catchings, ESPN reported in 2018. That’s the year Taurasi passed Katie Smith’s mark of 906 career 3-point field goals.
Now, in 2020 — with the WNBA season currently suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic — Taurasi remains atop the league all-time scoring list with 8,575 points.
In 2013, she was asked, what’s next?
“I’m not happy,” Taurasi responded, “until I get to 10,000.”
We’ll share another Moment of Pride tomorrow and every day throughout Pride Month.
