Basketball legend Diana Taurasi announced her retirement in Time on Tuesday, and the tributes are pouring in for one of the greatest women’s players ever. Taurasi won three national championships in college with the UConn Huskies, two Naismith College Player of the Year awards, went on to become a five-time WNBA scoring leader, a 10-time All-WNBA First Team selection, and a three-time WNBA champion. For all of her success, Taurasi’s greatest area of achievement may have come at the Olympics.
Draymond Green got dunked on by Diana Taurasi harder than any NBA player at 2016 Olympics
Diana Taurasi got Draymond Green better than anyone at the Rio Olympics.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Taurasi won six gold medals with Team USA women’s basketball over a 20-year stretch from 2004-2024. USA women’s basketball hasn’t lost a game at the Olympics since 1992, and Taurasi played a huge role in extending their dominance. Taurasi wasn’t just a winner and champion when the Olympics would pop up every four years, she was also something of a comedian.
Taurasi was ruthless both on and off the court. The Time retirement story highlighted one instance during the 2016 Rio Olympics when the Phoenix Mercury star interrupted Draymond Green — who was playing for the men’s Olympic team — and absolutely roasted him for his lack of scoring ability. This is art:
During the 2016 Rio Olympics, the women’s and men’s U.S. basketball teams again stayed on a cruise ship. Players from both teams, a group of NBA and WNBA stars, were sitting around one night, having a few laughs, a few drinks, and talking some serious smack, as is the habit of super competitive and successful athletes. Draymond Green, a noted NBA rabble-rouser known more for his defensive instincts, physicality, passing skills, and penchant for drawing technical fouls and suspensions than his shooting and scoring ability, was going on about something. Taurasi said, “Hey, Draymond, how does it feel to be the only person in this room who’s never been double-teamed?”
Green never stops running his mouth, so it serves him right to have to take some jabs every once in the while. You can bet Green is going to be all over our TVs as an analyst from the moment he retires talking about how the current generation just isn’t as tough the players from his day. When that happens, just remember Taurasi burned him as good as anyone.
Women’s basketball is now bigger than ever, and superstars like Taurasi paved the way for the likes of Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. The game continues to grow, but we’ll never see another personality quite like DT.
