Feisty Female Friday: Diana Taurisi

The FFF this week is Diana Taurisi.

Diana, who was born in Italy and grew up in CA, is one of the greatest players in the history of women’s professional basketball. She was one of the highest scorers in CA high-school history, winning the Naismith Award for the national girls’ high-school basketball player of the year. For her college career she played at UConn where the team won multiple national championships, also winning two Naismith Awards for the women’s college basketball player of the year.

After college, Diana entered the WNBA draft and was selected by the Phoenix Mercury. She led the team to three WNBA championships, was named the league and finals MVP, Rookie of the Year, and earned 10 first-team All-WNBA honors. Diana was a five-time NBA scoring champion and a member of the U.S. women’s basketball teams which won six consecutive Olympic gold medals.

She also earned seven Russian League titles. In a fan vote held to celebrate the WNBA’s 25th anniversary, Diana was voted the greatest WNBA player of all time. She retired from professional basketball after 20 seasons and recently in an Amazon Prime biographical documentary series, a movie about her life in basketball, Taurasi, debuted to great acclaim.

Diana is involved in One Community, Save the Family, KaBoomi, charities for single moms, and has also been awarded the WBNA Cares Community Award. She is married, has two children, and lives in AZ.