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Diana Taurasi and the shot that made WNBA scoring history – ESPN
Diana Taurasi was still a teenager when Geno Auriemma first witnessed her scoring greatness up close.
In the summer of 2000, months before they teamed up at UConn, Taurasi was competing for the United States at the U18 Junior World Championship qualifying tournament in Argentina. Heading into the semifinals, Auriemma, Team USA’s coach, told Taurasi she needed to score 30 points for the Americans to win.
She dropped 26.
“That’s when I realized when this kid sets her mind to do something, it’s going to get done,” Auriemma told ESPN. “And that hasn’t stopped for the last 20-some years.”
Taurasi has gone on to become the greatest scorer in WNBA history.
The 41-year-old Phoenix Mercury star is the all-time scoring leader by more than 2,500 points. Her 19.2 career PPG average ranks third among players with at least 200 appearances. She owns WNBA records for made field goals (3,145), 3-pointers (1,347) and free throws (2,387), and on Thursday, halfway through her 19th season, became the only WNBA player to score 10,000 points. Taurasi entered Thursday’s game 18 points shy of the milestone and finished with a season-high 42 to bring her career total to 10,024.
ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss sat down with Taurasi for an exclusive conversation about her shooting form, basketball acumen, longevity and confidence (“I think I’m going to make every shot,” she said). We break down her shot step by step, with help from Taurasi herself.
Shooters are taught to keep their shoulders square, elbow in and feet shoulder-width apart, but Taurasi doesn’t see shooting as one size fits all. “(It’s) not technical,” she said. “It’s not reps. It’s a feel.”
Former Mercury coach Sandy Brondello calls Taurasi’s shot smooth and effortless. Sue Bird, who teamed with Taurasi to win five Olympic gold medals and an NCAA title, recognizes the form isn’t textbook, but said it’s authentically Taurasi. “Her shot’s beautiful,” Bird said. “She just does it her way.”
Taurasi’s shot begins with the catch. Whether gathering her own dribble or collecting a pass from a teammate, she always loads belt-high to generate power and goes straight up from there, creating space away from her body to align her shooting elbow with the basket.
Auriemma taught Taurasi in college to buck the norm and aim her feet slightly left of the hoop. He likened it to throwing darts. It’s most noticeable at the free throw line, where Taurasi is an 89% career shooter.
One of Taurasi’s favorite parts of her shot is her follow through — or lack thereof. Her release is quick and high, making it tough to defend. “When you’re slow and don’t have much athleticism,” Taurasi said coyly, “you better be able to think quick and pull the trigger quick.”
What’s the secret to Taurasi becoming an elite scorer? Work. Lots of work.
“You’ve got to show up every day and you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of things,” she said. “That’s what you have to do. If you really want to do something different than everyone else then you have to do things that are different.”
Taurasi puts up 400 to 500 shots at an uncomfortable pace two days a week during the offseason. She misses a lot of those shots.
“You don’t get to put your little Instagram video of you making every shot,” she said. “That’s not reality.”
Instead of hitting five uncontested shots in a row, Taurasi works on untraditional shots — off-balance, off one leg, her feet staggered, jump backs — anything to create the unpredictability that games provide.
Geno Auriemma
Playing into her 40s has taught Taurasi that basketball has a finite number of options. Once the ball is in her hands, she has a split second to decide whether to drive, shoot or pass. She evaluates the defense, makes a decision and acts. “If it takes you longer than that, the moment’s gone,” she said.
Taurasi can anticipate how a play will evolve two or three steps before it starts, according to Auriemma. She sees patterns when she looks at defenses. “She sees the court the way (Lionel) Messi sees [the pitch] or the way (Wayne) Gretzky saw [the ice],” he said.
When Taurasi catches a pass, she immediately makes sure her fingertips are on the seams, rotating the ball if needed. Everything else, she said, is a feel. “The minute I gather, I find a way to Rubik’s cube it,” said Taurasi, who would rather catch-and-shoot these days, as it takes less energy and she can get off the shot quicker.
Bird said Taurasi’s first step doesn’t get recognized enough. Just by looking at a defender, Taurasi said she knows when she can beat them with a “powerful” step that positions the lead shoulder and hip in front of the defender and invites contact. “They’re always beat,” she said. “It’s can you identify it quick enough?”
If Taurasi was to put on a tape of her playing in the fourth grade, she thinks her shot would look exactly the same.
“There’s certain things that work for me,” she said.
Taurasi has figured out how to adapt her game as she has aged, just like some of the other greats did throughout their careers. Bird described Taurasi’s evolution as making additions to her game, such as the step-back 3 she perfected during her time in Russia.
“Maybe the way Jordan evolved, maybe the way Kobe evolved,” Auriemma said. “They had this reckless abandon about them when they were younger, and Dee, she would go out of her way to create contact. She loved the physicality of the game. She loved being in the lane. She loved mixing it up. You don’t score a lot of points unless you get to the free throw line and make a lot of 3s. So, she did that.”
Sue Bird
Opponents can study film and prepare for some things. But no one can account for the intangibles, such as when Taurasi gets hot or in the zone, or how she extends her range as she feels comfortable.
“Obviously you have to game plan for her,” Brondello said. “(But) how do you slow down Diana?”
Some players have a chemistry with Taurasi that is just innate. When she and current Mercury teammate Brittney Griner cross paths at the top of the key, for instance, one of them will likely create an open shot for the other. “We’ve done it so much over the years,” she said.
Taurasi’s favorite place on the court is from free throw line to the 3-point line. She feels she can score or make the right pass in that area. “I think 3s to her represent daggers,” Bird said. “That’s her personality.” Taurasi admits she doesn’t have half-court range but will shoot from anywhere on the court when she feels she can make it. “I’m like, if you can see the basket, it’s a good shot,” Brondello remembers telling Taurasi.
When Taurasi is in the zone, she feels like she’s the only one floating in space. It doesn’t matter who’s guarding her. It doesn’t matter from where she’s shooting. It’s going in. Those on the sideline just sit back and watch. “It’s a thing of beauty,” Brondello said.
Among all the honors bestowed upon Taurasi, getting the green light to shoot at will for the better part of her college and WNBA careers, has been one of the most fruitful.
And it has been glorious.
“It’s the best thing in the world,” Taurasi said. “And the green light doesn’t come from just one person. It comes from a trust of a whole, and when you have that trust, it really is fun to play the game of basketball.”
Facing a player with the green light isn’t easy, Bird said.
“As a defender, you can take no possession off,” Bird said. “It’s exhausting, more so mentally than physically.”
Taurasi has embraced her freedom to shoot and it has fed her scorer’s mentality, which was stoked by coaches early in her WNBA career. She was directed to be strictly a scorer, but Taurasi also knew when to give herself the yellow light.
“You don’t give the green light to anybody who’s dumb, right?” Auriemma said. “I don’t care how good a shooter they are. If they’re dumb, you don’t give them the green light because they’ll end up taking bad shots at the worst time and those are the ones they’ll miss.”
Sandy Brondello
When Taurasi got to UConn, Auriemma told her to wear No. 3 because she would be the Babe Ruth of women’s basketball if she lived up to her potential.
But Taurasi doesn’t want to decide her legacy. That’s for everyone else to do, she said. Reaching 10,000 points will be another record in a career full of them.
“Ten thousand is going to be something that hopefully means something to women’s basketball,” Taurasi said, “and it’s going to be, I feel like, a bigger deal when someone breaks it.”
Bird doesn’t hesitate to sum it up.
“I think Dee’s legacy is going to be all the things you can read on a piece of paper,” Bird said. “In my mind, she’s the best player the WNBA has seen.”
Auriemma thinks Taurasi’s feat will become even more appreciated as the league continues to grow.
“As the WNBA is getting more and more and more traction and recognition among the majority of the fans in America,” Auriemma said, “they’re going to start realizing that this kid was the best basketball player in the world for a long time.”
Produced by ESPN Creative Studio: Michelle Bashaw, Jarret Gabel, Nick Galac, Alecia Hamm, Michael Kataja, Kristine LaManna, Beth Stojkov, Garrett Siegel and Rachel Weiss.
Written by Josh Weinfuss. Edited by Melanie Jackson.
Illustrations by Todd Detwiler. Photography by Candice Ward. Videography by Zach Reed. Audio by Drew Pilot. Video editing by Jason Bennett. Additional imagery by Getty Images.