Six degrees of Diana Taurasi: How the WNBA’s first 10,000-point scorer is linked to Philly
The league’s all-time leading scorer reached another milestone on Thursday night.
Diana Taurasi became the first woman in WNBA history to reach 10,000 career points Thursday night as her Phoenix Mercury routed the visiting Atlanta Dream.
Taurasi, who became the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer in 2017, drained a right-wing three-pointer with 8 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Famously, Nos. 8 and 24 are the now-retired jersey numbers of the late Kobe Bryant, whom Taurasi idolized growing up as a Los Angeles Lakers fan in Chino, Calif.
Bryant and Taurasi became close friends, with Taurasi becoming an idol of Bryant’s daughter, Gianna.
In August of 2020, Taurasi, on what would have been Bryant’s 42nd birthday before he, Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash in January that year, scored 34 points wearing Bryant’s No. 8 instead of her customary 3.
» READ MORE: A year after Kobe Bryant’s death, remember that the Lower Merion kid was ours to cherish | Mike Sielski
Taurasi’s connection to Bryant is just the first of several (albeit somewhat tenuous) connections to Philly. Are we stretching a bit here? Sure, but here are five other ways she’s connected to Philly ...
On the court with Taurasi as she breached the 10,000-point barrier was former Temple standout Shey Peddy, the Atlantic 10′s women’s basketball player and defensive player of the year in 2012. Peddy was the first to earn both honors since Temple’s Candice Dupree won both in 2005 and 2006.
The head coach of the Atlanta Dream, Tanisha Wright, was thrice named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and was a First-Team All-American at Penn State.
Wright’s assistant coach, Vickie Johnson, was an assistant coach under Philly basketball legend Dawn Staley.
In 2017, Taurasi broke Tina Thompson’s WNBA record of 7,488 points. Thompson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 alongside Maurice Cheeks, the beloved point guard of the Sixers 1983 NBA championship team.
Moriah Jefferson, the woman who assisted Taurasi’s historic basket, twice received the Nancy Lieberman Award, which recognizes the best point guard in college basketball. Last year, Lieberman’s charity partnered with Vanessa Bryant’s Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation to dedicate two new outdoor basketball courts and a public arts mural at Tustin Playground on Columbia Avenue.
Next week, Taurasi will likely get a truer dose of Philly when Natasha Cloud and the Washington Mystics visit the Mercury Aug. 8.
» READ MORE: Philly’s Natasha Cloud, a WNBA star and social justice activist, is ‘tired of the crumbs’