Since she retired from the WNBA in February, Diana Taurasi has been playing more golf, coaching her 7-year-old son’s basketball team with her wife Penny Taylor and not watching the WNBA that much because she’s so busy.
She doesn’t miss the daily grind of playing basketball for a living. But she still manages to get out on the court.
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“Penny and I coached Leo’s first-grade team, so we practice with them a little bit,” Taurasi said this week. “We try to teach them the fundamentals of basketball, which isn’t easy when they’re 7 years old and they can’t even form a straight line but we’re getting there.”
Their last game was on a recent Sunday.
“They ended the season with a strong performance,” she said. “I think we lost.
“It was a strong performance.”
Taurasi, 42, is enjoying her retirement after 20 years in the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury, where she became the league’s all-time scoring leader and won three WNBA championships. The former UConn star also won a record six Olympic gold medals, including last year’s Team USA win over France in the gold medal game in France.
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“I’ve enjoyed my time not having a lot on my plate,” Taurasi said. “Just enjoying the kids and being around and being at home. Exploring different things I might like or not like. I’ve golfed a little bit more – it’s been bad golf but nonetheless…I’ve gotten to meet some interesting people. It’s been great.
“Someone asked me, ‘Do you miss anything?’ I really thought about it and no, I don’t.”
A medical issue that Taurasi has had to deal with since college has also cleared up for her lately.
Taurasi has suffered from moderate to severe eczema, a chronic skin disorder that can cause itching and redness, among other symptoms, since she played at UConn and about a year ago, she began to take a new drug that has alleviated her symptoms.
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“I went to my dermatologist, and they suggested Dupixent and it’s really transformed my skin – all the daily things I used to think twice about, now I can be able to do those things without thinking twice,” she said. “The itch and the redness has gone away. It’s different for everyone but it’s been wonderful in my case.”
Taurasi, who came from California to Connecticut, said the colder climate and stress aggravated her eczema, which appeared on her arms, her back and the back of her knees. She used to wear long-sleeved shirts when she played sometimes when it flared up.
“I knew once I took off that shooting shirt, it was pretty prominent and uncomfortable,” she said. “If it made me uncomfortable, it was always in the back of my mind how it made my teammates feel. I was definitely self-conscious about it for a long time.”
But now it’s something she doesn’t have to worry about anymore.
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Taurasi has kept one part of her routine the same; she still gets up and works out every morning at the same time, 9:30.
“I love the physical activity of working out; it gets me ready for the day,” she said. “I want to be as healthy as I can. The kids are getting older; I can still ride a bike and run around with them and defend an 8-year-old on the perimeter.”
She doesn’t miss all the time it took to prepare to play. As she got older, the preparation became more involved.
“When I was younger, I’d get to the gym at 5:30 for a 7 o’clock game,” she said. All of a sudden, I’m getting to the gym at 3:30 to get all the things in line to perform at a high level at 7. I don’t miss all those things.
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“I’m good. I did it all. I’m happy where I’m at.”
She hasn’t watched that many WNBA games – too busy on the weekends, she said – but she has kept up a dialogue with former UConn star and Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers.
“We chat all the time, we text,” she said. “I’m her biggest fan. I’m her biggest cheerleader.
“These kids are growing up in a different era of basketball and a different era of technology – for me to give her advice on how I grew doesn’t really register. I want her to figure it out. The sky is the limit for Paige because she can galvanize a group of players, which is a huge thing. She prepares in the best way I’ve seen any player prepare in a long time, the way she goes about it. She’s so grounded and patient and she has a lot of grace.”
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Last week, Rebecca Lobo said Taurasi, who has hosted a popular ESPN2 show with Sue Bird during the Final Four, could be the next “Charles Barkley” on TV.
“She’s sort of our Charles Barkley in terms of what she could bring to a studio, in particular a studio show, either in the NBA or the WNBA,” Lobo said on a media call.
But Taurasi is still weighing her options.
“I’m just taking my time,” she said. “I don’t want to jump into anything too quickly. I want to see what I’m interested in, something I’m passionate about – obviously basketball is always going to be the thing that drives me. Any way to be part of the game of basketball – I’m going to look at all those opportunities really closely.”
