PHOENIX — Last week, former Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi was about to board a flight to New York when her 7-year-old son, Leo, asked: “Is retirement sad?”
For the next four hours, Taurasi contemplated the question.
“It is sad,” Taurasi said Thursday afternoon during her retirement news conference at the Mercury’s practice facility in downtown Phoenix. “I am sad. I don’t show it. I am. I don’t like to outwardly show my sadness, but I am sad. It’s the game that I played since I was 7.
“It’s all the things that in life I always love to do. And that was to play the game of basketball.”
Taurasi spoke publicly for the first time since announcing her retirement on Feb. 25 after 20 seasons with the Mercury. Earlier Thursday, the Mercury announced that Taurasi’s No. 3 would be retired next summer, when she’ll also be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor.
Taurasi’s jersey will hang in the rafters alongside jerseys of Cheryl Miller, Jennifer Gillom, Bridget Pettis, Michele Timms…
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