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Mercury celebrate Diana Taurasi in possibly final home game of her career despite loss to Storm

PHOENIX – The atmosphere around Footprint Center on any given night for a Phoenix Mercury game is relatively the same with thousands of passionate fans cheering on their favorite team, but despite an 89-70 loss to the Seattle Storm on Thursday night, it was a spectacle any fan will never forget.

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Mercury (19-21) legend Diana Taurasi stepped onto the court in front of family, friends, former coaches and teammates and scored nine points in what could potentially be her final home game ever in Phoenix. Brittney Griner notched 11 points while both Sophie Cunningham and Natasha Mack finished with 10 a piece.

Six of the Storm’s (25-15) players had double-digit points, with Nneka Ogwumike leading the pack with 17. Seattle was 6-2 in its last eight games in the regular season and took the season series over the Mercury, 3-1.

Taurasi soaked it all in of being honored immensely

With a game of this magnitude, the Mercury celebrated Taurasi with multiple players donning her No. 3 jersey. Cunningham, Griner and Copper all wore the special edition “GOAT” jerseys with a goat coming out from the number and Cloud sporting a vintage Taurasi Adidas jersey.

With 11,333 fans turning out to witness such an icon for maybe the last time ever in person, the team also gave away free “Greatest of All-Time” t-shirts. Throughout the stoppages during the Western Conference showdown, there was an array of highlight packages on the jumbotron, commemorating what Taurasi has done in her career and for Phoenix.

She knew the circumstances and the story behind the game coming in and while the emotions could have easily distracted her from playing her brand of basketball, Taurasi took it all in and went out to perform with the city and community having her back.

“You can’t stop and think, reminisce and think about if this is the last time walking down that tunnel, the last time putting on that jersey at home, I have just had so many great memories in this building,” Taurasi said. “The city has been second to none to me, it’s home now.”

Storm win game, night was for DT

As for the game itself, Seattle was without star Jewell Loyd and starting center Ezi Magbegor due to injuries. Both players made the trip to the Valley but watched the matchup from the bench.

Despite missing two massive players in its lineup, the Storm went on a 10-0 run and seemed as if everybody couldn’t miss a shot. Leading 35-14 at the end of the first quarter, they were an abnormally high 15-for-22 (68.2%) from the field and 5-for-10 (50%) from three.

Seattle’s strong presence in the paint was on full display, outscoring the Mercury 34-28 in the paint and outrebounding them 41-33.

Phoenix was left scratching their heads after watching the Storm connecting on almost every shot in the initial 10 minutes of the game before something sparked and they ate into Seattle’s wide, 28-point margin. The trio of Cunningham, Taurasi and Griner combined for 13 of Phoenix’s 17 points in the second frame, helping the team get within 12, 43-31.

Ogwumike, one of the more consistent scorers the WNBA has ever seen, displayed her talent by shooting 6-for-10 from the field and 2-for-3 from deep. She was on the Los Angeles Sparks for 12 seasons before she signed a one-year contract with the Storm in February.

Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts mentioned before the game that the coaching staff was going to monitor the playing time of the starters ahead of the playoffs. As the third quarter reached its halfway stage, Taurasi went to the bench and the other starters followed suit in the fourth.

But with everyone around her wanting her to go out and embrace the fans for maybe the last time of her historic career, the 20-year WNBA veteran checked back in with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter and was met with a massive roar from the Mercury faithful, aka “The X-Factor.” She was in for six seconds before she returned to the sidelines at 3:05.

“I did not really tell her the plan, we started to tell her with about seven minutes to go and she did not want to go in,” Tibbetts said, with a smirk. “She gave in to the peer pressure from her teammates and coaching staff. In a moment like that, obviously it is for her but it’s for these people that supported her for 20 years and I am glad she decided to do it because that is something she deserved for sure.”

The Storm was never in serious danger of losing the game, playing a complete 40 minutes from start to finish and the result will help boost its confidence heading into the first-round playoff series vs. the reigning back-to-back WNBA championships, the Las Vegas Aces.

While the game itself didn’t have much weight since both teams were already locked into the playoffs beforehand, however, the significance behind Thursday night with Taurasi mattered substantially more than anything that could have possibly happened.

“On a night like tonight, you don’t want to make it all about you, you want to make it all about DT, ” Tibbetts said. “Credit to her and how she handled everything, I am proud. It was a special, special night just to see her doing this for a long time. Her parents have watched hundreds, if not, thousands of games and they’re crying and smiling like she is an eight-year-old girl out there. This is a moment that when you experience it, you’ll remember it forever. It was a very special night.”

The fans got on their feet to clap and cheer after a postgame video, paying homage to what she has been able to do in her career. The 2004 first-overall draft pick is a three-time WNBA champion (2007, 2009, 2014), 2009 WNBA MVP, 11-time All-Star, 10-time All-NBA First-Team honoree, five-time WNBA scoring champion and has accomplished many more accolades along the way.

She took in the surreal moment at the end of the game and was met with hugs from her Mercury teammates, Olympic teammate Loyd, one of her good friends and WNBA legend Sue Bird, former Mercury head coach Corey Gaines, her college coach at UConn Geno Auriemma and others.

An echoing chant of “one more year” erupted in her possibly her final sendoff and she said this might have been it for her playing days, but she also sounded as if the door was still open to push towards 2025 and play at 43 years old.

“I got into the locker room and I was talking with BG and there are still days where I am like, ‘I can still do this, I still want to play basketball.’ Then there is the flipside where I am crawling out of bed, and I guess it is a struggle you have when you get to this point of your career,” Taurasi said. “You have to do so much to get back on the court and it’s bittersweet in a lot of ways. I think once the season is over, I’ll have a better idea of what it looks like for me in the future.”

Playoff Games

Mercury: Away at Minnesota Lynx (30-10) | Sept. 22 | 2 p.m. PT

Storm: Away at Las Vegas Aces (27-13) | Sept. 22 | 7 p.m. PT

Amy Atwell signs rest-of-season contract with Mercury before WNBA playoffs

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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, the Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini

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