Swanson: Love Caitlin Clark, but don’t hate on Diana Taurasi

LOS ANGELES – Diana Taurasi would be a good candidate for Jimmy Kimmel’s “mean tweets.”

You know, the late-night bit that has celebrities react to online trolls in a way that highlights how moronic those “mean” internet comments are?

“She’s the old lady yelling at the sky.” 

“Annual Diana Taurasi should be ashamed of herself tweet. Why you have to be greedy that you need to participate in 6 Olympics is crazy.” 

“Diana taurasi is [42] and hasn’t won a chip since 2014, won’t remove her name from the Olympic pool. Old … hating … loser, man.” 

This is Diana Taurasi you’re posting about, man. An old … winner, man.

Three NCAA championships at UConn and three more in the WNBA. Six Euroleague crowns. Five Olympic golds and going for No. 6 in Paris this month.

Show some respect for the women’s basketball star from Chino.

Yes, Taurasi is the oldest player in the WNBA. By five years. She’s in Year 20 and 20 years older than Caitlin Clark – the No. 1 overall pick who was 2 years old when Taurasi was drafted No. 1 overall in 2004.

More Gmail than Myspace, Taurasi has stood the test of time, in terms of usage and relevance: She’s 42 now and she’s been hoopin’-hoopin’ for the Phoenix Mercury, averaging nearly 17 points per game, her WNBA-record career scoring total 10,423 ticking ever upward.

That’s Tom Brady territory. LeBron James sort of lore. File under: Greats giving Father Time a run for his money.

We celebrate what those guys are/were doing in their late-30s and 40s. Find it inspirational. Ask one another, over and over: How amazing is this?

And then people who go online or on TV and argue that Taurasi should hurry up and pass the baton, that her inclusion on the Olympic team is somehow “difficult to explain” and that all her rich experience counts, basically, for naught.

As though someone as hyper-competitive as her has any interest in hanging around longer than she should: “Trust me, when I suck, I won’t play,” she’s said.

It’s a good thing she doesn’t care what we have to say. That she’s willing still to do everything required – all the extra effort and prep – to keep doing the work she loves while keeping up with colleagues half her age.

I think about this often:

From ESPN’s “144” – “Why can’t old people dream too? Is there an age limit to being great?” pic.twitter.com/hB1AtJnMpf

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) July 16, 2024

 

“Why can’t old people dream too?” she asked in “144,” ESPN’s documentary about the WNBA’s bubble in 2020. “Is there an age limit to being great?”

No, ma’am, there’s not. Even if some people apparently think there should be.

Even if a significant swath of fans want to box her out because they were offended by what she said during an ESPN interview in April, when she offered reasonable advice to incoming rookies like Clark. What widely circulated – “reality is coming” – was just a portion of Taurasi’s answer: “Not saying that it’s not gonna translate,” she said. “’Cause when you’re great at what you do, you’re just gonna get better. But there is gonna be a transition period where you’re gonna have to give yourself some grace as a rookie.”

What a bitter old— wait, no, that’s actually pretty cool.

Diana Taurasi on Caitlin Clark coming to WNBA "Reality is coming….you look superhuman playing against some 18 years olds but you're going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time" pic.twitter.com/fxBxGoRZCS

— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 6, 2024

 

And now people seem to be telling themselves that Team USA has been winning all of these golds easily, automatically, as if Taurasi hasn’t had a ton to do with the 38 consecutive Olympic victories since she joined the squad.

Folks must believe the contributions of one of women’s basketball’s all-time impact players are easily replicable. Because they’ve been writing articles and going on TV talking like Clark should have had the edge in a race with Taurasi for the final spot on the roster because her stats in the first month of the WNBA season were slightly better. But there was no such race in the first place. If Clark – who, controversially, was left off the Olympic team – had made it, she would have been playing with Taurasi.

“You see that narrative out there going, ‘How does she keep making those teams?’” said Sparks coach Curt Miller, who has been part of the national program since 2017. “I’m telling you … every single camp I’ve been to, the best player at camp is always D.T.

“She leads, she makes everyone around her better, she makes it fun, but it’s competitive. She tries to get the other great players off their game by talking trash, and it’s just, until you experience it, it’s just truly special to be around Diana.”

I understand why new fans might be tired of being lectured on the sport’s history instead of just being welcomed to come enjoy watching the game that’s come so far. But if you missed it, I do wish you would’ve witnessed how dope it’s been, all this time, watching Taurasi talk mess and zing no-look bullet passes and drain deep-3 daggers.

Do wish you appreciated the lady’s swagger and sense of humor. And how Taurasi – who at one point was 13-0 in closeout games in the WNBA playoffs, as inevitable in big moments as Lionel Messi – sometimes answers reporters’ questions fluently in the Spanish she grew up speaking, the proud daughter of an Argentine mother.

Do wish you realized she’s called the “White Mamba” because of her relationship with Kobe Bryant, who would tweet his support, post videos of Gigi sinking shots over him and caption them like this: “Gigi working on that @DianaTaurasi stroke #wristwork.”

Gigi working on that @DianaTaurasi stroke #wristwork #wnbafinals we r hype for the rematch! pic.twitter.com/Ly6pEjLuZS

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) September 18, 2017

 

There’s never been someone like Clark. But before that, there had never been anyone like Taurasi.

“Diana is a player who was ahead of her time,” said the Sparks’ Layshia Clarendon, a San Bernardino native who watched her older sister, Jasmine, play against Taurasi at Don Lugo High School.

“I use the word nasty with her, because I think it’s a really important word to her legacy. The fierceness and the competitiveness that the game is showing today? People were judging her for her ability to show up and be like a dude out there, to be like, ‘I don’t give two (blanks), I’m here to win. I don’t care, I’ll get a technical.’ Now we’re celebrating that. Her legacy is she’s been doing that. From Day 1, that’s been her style of play.”

She’s walked the walk too. Strutted, more like.

“She’s been through every phase of the league, and has won,” said Kahleah Copper, Taurasi’s Team USA and Mercury teammate. “Not many people have had the success of breaking records and things, but she’s also a winner. That’s the most important aspect about her career: She’s a winner.”

There’s a street named Taurasi Way outside of the Footprint Center, home of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury – whose new $100 million training facility will have two practice courts named for Taurasi, who’s spent her whole WNBA career with the organization.

That’s why Adan Castillo, a 40-year-old Hemet resident who grew up in Phoenix, was at the Sparks-Mercury game earlier this month, rocking Taurasi’s No. 3 jersey.

“Being from Phoenix, after a while, it started to become apparent that the Mercury was the only Arizona sports team that was consistently winning championships or making it to the playoffs, so you know what? You feel better, rooting for that team,” he said. “And she stayed with the team. How many players can we say that about in the WNBA and the NBA?”

“She’s an icon, not just of the WNBA, but women’s sports.”

Taurasi was sidelined for that game against the Sparks, but Castillo bought the ticket hoping to see her play as often as possible before she does call it a career.

I hope Castillo gets plenty more opportunities. Maybe four more years’ worth.

See you in L.A., D.T.?

Explaining what Diana Taurasi has meant to women’s basketball. Q by @MirjamSwanson. @SportingTrib @FredoCervantes pic.twitter.com/zSFCeOcQi5

— ????????????-???????????? (@TheNoLookPass) July 7, 2024