The Phoenix Mercury raised Diana Taurasi's No. 3 into the rafters at Mortgage Matchup Center during halftime Sunday and inducted her as the sixth member of the franchise's Ring of Honor. Portland Fire won the game 88-85. The team announced a sellout crowd of 16,513.
More than two hours before tip-off, fans lined up outside the arena in downtown Phoenix, where the temperature topped 105 degrees. Many wore No. 3. Others took pictures at the mural on the side of the building.
Taurasi spent 20 years walking into the place with a game attached to the trip.
"I've really tried not to think about it," Taurasi said. "I just kind of want to let it happen when it does go up there. But just walking into the arena today, there's a lot of emotions. I'm used to coming into here, getting ready to compete and play for these fans. So it's a little bit different, but I still have that same mindset. I'm so grateful and thankful that this was my home for all 20 years. And it still feels surreal."
Sixth Into the Ring of Honor
Taurasi joins Cheryl Miller, Jennifer Gillom, Bridget Pettis, Penny Taylor, and Michele Timms. Miller coached the Mercury in their first four seasons and never wore a number for them. Phoenix retired Timms' No. 7 in 2002, only the second jersey the league had taken out of circulation. Gillom's 22, Pettis' 32, and Taylor's 13 followed.
Phoenix took Taurasi with the first overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft out of Connecticut, where she had won three NCAA championships. She won Rookie of the Year that season. She played all 20 of her WNBA seasons with the Mercury, from 2004 through 2014 and again from 2016 through 2024, and averaged 18.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in 565 regular-season games. Nobody in league history has played more seasons. Only Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Udonis Haslem have given a single WNBA or NBA franchise 20 years or more.
Underneath the number sit championships in 2007, 2009, and 2014, four Finals appearances, two Finals MVP awards, the 2009 MVP, 14 All-WNBA selections, 11 All-Star selections, five scoring titles, and six Olympic gold medals. Fans voted her the greatest player in league history during the WNBA's 25th season in 2021.
Forever cemented. Forever remembered. 💜
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 17, 2026
Diana Taurasi’s No. 3 is officially in the @PhoenixMercury rafters.
PDX-PHX | ESPN
Tap to watch: https://t.co/2hRqOGqbiR pic.twitter.com/vXg1GUH1OS
A Date Set Last March
The Mercury announced the plan on March 13, 2025, just over two weeks after she retired. Phoenix set Sunday's date this past March and put tickets on sale then. The banner went up at halftime, 17 months after the announcement.
"Today's a big one though," Taurasi explained. "Today feels different. When your number goes up there, you can't use it anymore. It's done, you know. So if there was any little competitiveness still in me, I think today it goes up in the rafters with the number, and it feels really good to know that every time I hit the court I gave everything, every offseason. And I think I said it before, I'm full. I'm full of gratitude and love, and I feel that and just really happy."
Sunday's Guest List
Taylor is in the Ring of Honor herself. She played for the Mercury, won championships alongside Taurasi, moved on to the coaching staff after she retired, and had her No. 13 raised years ago. She and Taurasi married and have two children, and all four were in the arena.
Brittney Griner, Taurasi's teammate on the 2014 title team, attended. So did Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, three-time MVP Sheryl Swoopes, and swimmer Michael Phelps. Much of the Mercury's front office and game-night staff has been in the building nearly as long as Taurasi was.
"It just makes everything worth it, and that's really how I feel about this place," Taurasi said. "When I walk in, I don't see strangers. I don't see employees. I see friends."
"I see people that I go to dinner with," Taurasi continued. "I see people that I text regularly with. Annie sends me a happy birthday card every year. This isn't just something that I showed up and said, oh, let's see what we can do here and leave. I treated this like my family, my extended family. And I think that's why walking in today, I'm really emotional, because I feel like I need to be giving that same love back to them, because without them, none of this is possible."
"I talk about loyalty a lot," Taurasi continued. "And that only works if it's a two-way street."
10,646 Points
Taurasi broke the career scoring record on June 18, 2017, at Staples Center, passing Tina Thompson's mark of 7,488. She scored 19 against the Los Angeles Sparks that night. Phoenix lost 90-59. She got there in her 13th season. Thompson had needed 17.
Six years later, on Aug. 3, 2023, she scored 42 against the Atlanta Dream in a 91-71 win and became the first player in WNBA history to reach 10,000 career points. It was her first 40-point game since July 14, 2010.
She finished with 10,646, more than 2,000 clear of anyone else. Her 3,341 made field goals are the league record. So are her 1,447 made 3-pointers and her 2,517 made free throws. Her 2,394 assists rank fourth. She led the WNBA in scoring five times, the most by any player.
The Season She Sat Out
On Feb. 3, 2015, the Mercury announced Taurasi would miss the season. UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian club that paid her roughly $1.5 million a year, had offered her more than her WNBA salary to rest through the summer. The league maximum that season was about $107,000. She had gone 10 straight years without an offseason. She came back in 2016.
Taurasi Way
Ahead of Sunday's game, the city and the team unveiled a "10646 Taurasi Way" street sign at First and Jefferson, outside the arena, replacing one installed in 2017 that carried the figure 7,489. A mural of her went up on the side of the building. The practice facility the Mercury opened in July 2024 houses the Diana Taurasi Courts, each with a logo of her silhouette, arms out, taken from the night she passed 10,000 points.
Mat Ishbia bought the Mercury along with the Suns in 2023 and has called her the greatest of all time. Taurasi's family lives in Phoenix. In fact, she considers herself a Phoenician and would welcome a stake in the franchise.
"I mean, it would be huge," Taurasi said. "Obviously when you spend 20 years anywhere, especially a place like this, where I feel like it's family, it's home, put all my hard work in here. My family lives here. I feel like I'm a true Phoenician. It would mean the world to me. If that happens down the road, it would be a dream come true."
"As a little kid, all you wanted to do was play basketball, and you never even thought maybe you could be an owner of a franchise, of a team, of anything," Taurasi continued. "So if that happens to come across my path, it would be a dream and an honor, really."
A leader in the league 👏 pic.twitter.com/evD0PT8vW9
— espnW (@espnW) August 16, 2026
Larry Fitzgerald
Larry Fitzgerald came to Arizona the same spring Taurasi did, when the Arizona Cardinals drafted him third overall a week after Phoenix took her first. He spent 17 seasons with the Cardinals and never played anywhere else. He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame this month and sat in the building Sunday.
"I've looked up to Larry since the day I got here," Taurasi said. "Larry was one of the first people to reach out and tell me, if you need anything, I'm always available. And I always looked up to him, the way he treated his teammates, his work habits, how he was in the community. And I think we're aligned with a lot of our values, and I think that's why we see eye to eye on a lot of things."
"There's no one better that I'd rather share my career with here than Phoenix and Larry," Taurasi continued. "He did it the right way every single day, and he's a great friend, and he's a Hall of Famer, so that's kudos to him. He did all the hard work to get there."
The X-Factor
The Mercury's fan base has gone by that name for most of the franchise's 30 years, and Taurasi closed the session in Spanish addressing it. She said she did not know where Arizona was when she got here 20 years ago, that she knew on her first day that the people and the basketball culture in Phoenix were different, and that the Hispanic community in the city matters to her.
Since the Last Game
Taurasi announced her retirement on Feb. 25, 2025, in an interview with TIME, and has not played since the 2024 season, which she finished at 42 as the oldest player in the league. She turned 44 in June. The two summers since have been the first she has spent at home in Phoenix without a season on either side of them.
"Throughout my career, it wasn't about winning in this weird way. That didn't make me happy," Taurasi said. "The winning or the losing, it didn't motivate me more or less. So once I retired, I didn't have this urge to be competitive. I didn't have this urge to prove myself. Hopefully I still treat the day the same way where whoever I come in contact with, I give them my attention. I give them my energy."
"And obviously when you have two kids, that's sucked out of you really quickly. But it's been the flip side of that. It's been so nice to be home," Taurasi continued. "When I watch games and I see how competitive and stressed and how much anxiety these players have, I understand that. It's high pressure. You want to go out there and perform and play well for your teammates, for your fans. And I don't miss that. That is the one thing that, as I stepped away, I feel like I'm floating on a different cloud now."
Portland Fire 88, Phoenix Mercury 85
The Mercury led 42-36 at the break. Portland outscored them 52-43 after the ceremony and took the fourth quarter 27-21.
Alyssa Thomas finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. DeWanna Bonner scored 23 and made 4 of her 10 attempts from 3-point range. Kahleah Copper added 19 points and 7 rebounds. Carla Leite led Portland with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Phoenix shot 41.8% from the field and went 9-of-27 from behind the arc.
Phoenix fell to 13-23 and hosts the Atlanta Dream on Aug. 22. Portland, in its first season, improved to 15-20.
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