PARIS — Van Chancellor knew he wished Diana Taurasi on the 2004 Olympic staff in Athens. She was younger, expert, assured, brash. He anticipated she can be a centerpiece of American basketball within the years to come back, however he additionally knew that she would nonetheless be capable of contribute on the squad of superstars that had been chosen for his staff — “Dream On” members who had helped re-center the world of girls’s basketball by retaking the gold in 1996 in Atlanta.
On Taurasi’s first day with Staff USA that 12 months, simply the morning after she had helped UConn to a nationwide title over Tennessee, she sat down on the bus subsequent to Chancellor and requested him a really easy query: What do you want out of me, Coach?
“I want so that you can act like a rookie,” he advised her.
“Coach Chancellor,” she stated, “if that’s all you want, I’m able to roll. I’m prepared to assist this staff.”
That was Diana 20 years in the past. It was her 4 days in the past, too, when after 33 consecutive Olympic begins for Staff USA, coach Cheryl Reeve moved her to the bench of their quarterfinal recreation in opposition to Nigeria in favor of 26-year-old Jackie Younger, the second-youngest participant on the roster. When the staff broke the huddle, Taurasi bounded again to the bench as if it have been the place the ball can be tipped. She sat down, rubbed her fingers collectively and locked in.
What did the staff want from her in that recreation? To do precisely that. Be the perfect chief and teammate, to cross the torch a bit and light-weight everybody else’s fires on the way in which.
On Sunday, Taurasi will play in her ultimate Olympic basketball recreation. It’s exhausting to think about a USA Basketball world during which Taurasi doesn’t play an element. Of the 60-consecutive wins this system has had, she has been part of 43.
“She has outlined USA Basketball,” Reeve stated. “I don’t know that there’s a better competitor. … Dee is Mount Rushmore in that approach.”
“She has outlined USA Basketball,” USA coach Cheryl Reeve says of Diana Taurasi. “I don’t know that there’s a better competitor.” (Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto / Getty Photos)
After the staff gained gold in 2021 in Tokyo, Taurasi, then 39, stunned everybody when she stared into the NBC digicam and ended her postgame interview by yelling, “See you in Paris!” earlier than she walked off. Sue Chicken, who had been in on the interview, too, appeared again on the digicam with fun and remarked, “She stated what she stated.”
Whereas many assumed the assertion was in jest, she didn’t. She stated what she stated. After which, she did it. She got here to Paris and led this staff. First from the beginning lineup, after which from the top of the bench.
Towards Nigeria, she didn’t enter the sport within the first half, and as a substitute was the primary to leap out of her seat with good performs from her teammates and coached folks up once they got here to the bench.
After the semifinal win over Australia, Reeve stated that when that is throughout, she may communicate extra in truth in regards to the burden of carrying the legacy of eight straight gold medals and the expectations of this program. She hasn’t slept a lot and as a substitute has toiled within the movie room imagining all of the methods basketball may very well be unfair to one of many biggest rosters ever assembled. She stated she obtained a message from Daybreak Staley, who coached the staff in Tokyo to its seventh consecutive gold medal, that learn: “There’s nothing I can say to you. I do know what you’re feeling. You simply should undergo it.”
What do you want out of me, Coach? You possibly can think about Taurasi saying.
To take a benching, as aggressive Taurasi is, in a approach speaks to the unselfish nature of this staff. To be as regular as doable in a world the place Reeve should really feel like Atlas at each nook. To be somebody who Reeve doesn’t have to fret about when she seems down the bench. As a result of they’ve Dee. She has seen the whole lot. Nothing rattles her.
OK, can be Taurasi’s response, if that’s all you want, I’m able to roll. I’m prepared to assist this staff.
In her sixth and ultimate Olympics (that half is reality — she quipped to reporters in London forward of the Olympics that they’d see her in Los Angeles … “on the seashore with a beer”), her inclusion on this roster has been argued by keyboard jockeys who couldn’t title three gamers on the staff.
However as she was in 2004, she is in 2024 — she’s right here to assist this staff. It seems completely different now than it did a decade in the past, twenty years in the past, however it’s the identical Diana. Nonetheless, at 42, she leads the guards and wings by each drill. She’s the primary to face up and clap from the bench. First to high-five teammates. First to drag gamers into the huddle, and first in these huddles to talk.
Diana Taurasi has embraced the mentor’s position on this U.S. staff, coming off the bench in every of the People’ final two video games. (Sarah Stier / Getty Photos)
If that sounds cliché and unimportant, then maybe it’s as a result of the stress this staff exists beneath is totally its personal. Different groups don’t want a Dee as a result of different groups don’t function on this distinctive house of perfection.
Maybe there’s no higher endorsement of Taurasi than the truth that the 2 greatest gamers on the earth — A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart — cede their house, their talking time, their skill to “be first” to another person.
“The most important factor that I like about DT is that she doesn’t change,” Wilson stated. “She is at all times so constant in what she does — that may be a signal of greatness.”
Taurasi’s greatness has been on show by these Video games. In moments huge and small. In how she has dealt with herself. In her graciousness in understanding her position, and the way it has modified. In how she has remained fixed in who she isn’t just in these six video games, however in her final 43.
“Take into consideration that — twenty years not two Olympics,” stated Geno Auriemma, former U.S. nationwide staff coach and Taurasi’s faculty coach at UConn. “The dedication and keenness, the love of the sport — all these in and of itself can be monumental. However add in that for twenty years she was the face of the staff, the perfect participant, greatest teammate and the best winner within the historical past of the sport.”
With that dedication and that point has come age. For a number of years now, Taurasi has made efforts to handle her physique in a distinct, extra centered, approach — went vegan, did lengthier pre- and post-practice stretching and remedy regimens longer than the observe itself. She has sacrificed to proceed to play, to proceed to be right here for not simply herself however her teammates.
On Sunday, Taurasi will placed on her No. 12 USA jersey one ultimate time in an Olympic setting. No athlete has completed what she has completed earlier than, and it’s exhausting to think about it occurring once more. Almost half of her life has been spent representing the U.S. on a global stage. However earlier than Taurasi got here round, it was exhausting to think about 60-straight wins or eight-straight gold medals. Now, Staff USA is on the precipice of simply that.
Her legacy is cemented, and has been, however in these ultimate Video games for her, she has proven what’s doable to each her teammates and the subsequent technology of gamers. Stewart calls her the “gold customary” of USA Basketball, and he or she’s simply that. And never simply because she already has 5 gold medals to her title.
Each Olympic coach she has had has requested her to do one thing completely different for her staff — be a rookie, be a scorer, be an elite passer, be a frontrunner, be a veteran, come off the bench, use your voice greater than your passing expertise. Briefly: Be Dee.
“I’m right here to compete. I’m right here to play at a excessive degree. I’m right here to provide to my teammates and I’m right here to win a gold medal — that’s it,” Taurasi stated when she arrived in Paris. “I don’t care in regards to the final 20 years. I’m apprehensive in regards to the subsequent 20 years.”
The subsequent 20 years of Staff USA are in good fingers. Taurasi has made certain of it. Simply ask Younger. Or Wilson. Or Kahleah Copper. Or Sabrina Ionescu.
And 4 years from now, when this group goes for a gold medal in Los Angeles, she’ll hopefully be on a seashore someplace, consuming a chilly one. She has greater than earned it.
GO DEEPER
Can the remainder of the world catch as much as Staff USA? Our ladies’s basketball consultants debate.
(Prime photograph of Diana Taurasi throughout Friday’s semifinal recreation in opposition to Australia: Daniela Porcelli / Eurasia Sport Photos / Getty Photos)