Diana Taurasi reflects on UConn coach Geno Auriemma, Kobe Bryant influences on career

Following the Phoenix Mercury’s 89-70 regular-season finale loss to Seattle on Thursday, Diana Taurasi closed her speech to the X-Factor crowd by saying, “If this is the last time, it felt like the first time.”

Two of the postgame’s other heartfelt moments for Taurasi were the extensive hug between Taurasi and Connecticut Huskies coach Geno Auriemma and Taurasi’s reflection on her late friend Kobe Bryant inspiring her legendary 20-year WNBA career.

She told reporters that seeing her college coach and others at the game were reminders of many first times in her basketball life and how Auriemma humbled and impacted her as his former top recruit.

“Coach means the world to me. I got to Connecticut as an 18-year-old that didn’t really know much but thought she knew a lot, and he quickly told me I didn’t,” Taurasi said after the game. “And he let me know that every day because he knew if I could just scratch the surface of where he thought I could go, something special could happen.”

UConn went to four straight Final Fours during Taurasi’s college career from 2001-04. Taurasi was the Huskies’ best player, and they won three consecutive of its NCAA record-tying 11 national titles during her sophomore through senior seasons.

In addition to Auriemma, many other key figures from before the start of Taurasi’s pro career such as her parents and sister, high school and college teammates, including future Hall of Famer Sue Bird, attended what might be Taurasi’s final home game ever.

After Taurasi was drafted No. 1 overall by the Phoenix Mercury in 2004, she immediately became the Mercury’s face of the franchise in its rebuild and led the team to its three titles in 2007, 2009, and 2014. Taurasi is the WNBA’s all-time scorer, No. 1 in a litany of additional all-time categories in the league, won 13 championships overseas during the league’s offseasons, and clipped her all-time record sixth gold medal at the 2024 Olympics in August.

Auriemma also coached her and Bird on Team USA during the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

“Twenty years later, to still have his love, his friendship, his mentorship, his family, I looked over and he was chatting with my dad in Italian,” Taurasi said about Auriemma. “It felt like my home visit (24) years ago in Chino (California), with my kicking my dad underneath the table, like ‘Shut up.’ They were drinking wine. All those memories start coming back to you.”

As for Bryant, Taurasi’s stockpiled career accolades are similar to what he achieved during his 20-year Hall Of Fame career with the Los Angeles Lakers before his retirement in 2016.

Bryant drove the Lakers to five titles from 2000-10, earned the NBA MVP award in 2008, two NBA Finals MVPs, 18 All-Star Game selections, two-time scoring champion, fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, got 11 All-NBA First Team nods, and won two Olympic gold medals in 2012 and 2016. Taurasi won her sole WNBA MVP award in 2009, two WNBA Finals MVPs, five-time scoring champion, she’s an 11-time All-Star, and earned 10 All-WNBA First Team selections.

“Kobe set the bar. To be in one place for 20 years, you can probably handpick how many people have played for one team for that long. And it’s not easy being in one place for 20 years.

“It’s a long relationship of ups and downs, and compromise, and ‘I don’t like this, I don’t like that.’ But at the end of the day, this franchise, through my ups and my downs, always had my back, and I always try to pay that back by coming back a better player, a better teammate. In that sense, I’ve been really lucky.”

In addition, Bryant gave Taurasi her nickname “The White Mamba” as the female version of his “Black Mamba” moniker several years before his death in 2020.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Taurasi discusses UConn coach, Kobe Bryant’s role in her WNBA career