Mercury's Diana Taurasi emotional at possibly last home game

PHOENIX – When Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts walked down the sideline to where Diana Taurasi was sitting late in the fourth quarter of Thursday night's 89-70 loss to the Seattle Storm, he had to enlist the help of Brittney Griner, Natasha Cloud and Sophie Cunningham to convince the WNBA's all-time leading scorer to return for what could be the last home game of her illustrious career.

Eventually, the quartet, along with the help of a sold-out crowd chanting “DT,” convinced Taurasi, 42, to step up to the plate. She wasn't scheduled to play in the final quarter, but with 3:11 left, the only WNBA player to score 10,000 points in her career entered the game at the Footprint Center to a standing ovation. She acknowledged the fans' reaction with waves and claps as chants of “one more year” echoed through the arena.

Then, six seconds later, Taurasi was substituted, leaving the court for possibly the last time at Footprint, where she played 261 games, scored 5,156 points, dished out 1,137 assists, grabbed 1,040 rebounds and made 678 3-pointers.

She hugged Tibbetts, and as she walked back to the bench, she paused to hug and kiss her parents, Mario and Lily Taurasi, who were sitting courtside, before hugging each of her teammates until she reached the end of the bench.

Whether it was her last game in front of the home crowd that has cheered her on since she was drafted No. 1 by the Mercury in 2004 remains to be seen. There is still basketball on the schedule. Phoenix travels to Minnesota for a best-of-three playoff series that begins Sunday against the Lynx. Aside from a possible third game in Arizona, Taurasi isn't sure if Thursday was actually her last home game.

“I think when the season is over, I will have a better idea of ​​what the future looks like for me,” Taurasi said after the game.

However, Thursday evening had all the prerequisites for a farewell.

For weeks, Mercury had been running a social media campaign called “If this is it…” At the game, fans expected to see jerseys draped across the seats in honor of Taurasi. From there, the pomp and celebration continued.

During warmups, Kahleah Copper wore Taurasi jerseys from different eras along with Cloud and Cunningham. All three wore Taurasi jerseys along with Griner during introductions.

Her former coach at the University of Connecticut, Geno Auriemma, traveled for the game, as did her longtime friends Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Taurasi's former Mercury coach Corey Gaines was in attendance, along with a number of former college and high school teammates. Her small group of best friends traveled, as did a large group of family and other friends.

And Taurasi had no idea they were coming.

“Everyone just said, 'Good luck tonight' and 'See you in the winter,'” Taurasi said.

“I went to warm up and saw Corey Gaines, who I respect a lot. We learned so much from him. He was the first domino to fall. And then as the game went on, I was like, 'Uh, oh.' A lot of nice faces that I've shared a lot of great moments with. And we're going to have dinner together tonight.”

Taurasi has said for years she didn't want a farewell tour and would probably just walk off into the proverbial sunset without making a big announcement of her retirement. The tension and attention throughout the evening — Tibbetts said before the game the goal was to make the night as special as possible for Taurasi — was “a lot,” Taurasi said, especially with a playoff series looming.

“But you can't stop and think and reminisce and wonder if that was the last time I walked through that tunnel, the last time I put on that jersey at home. I just have so many great memories of that building,” she said. “This city is just unmatched for me.”

“Now it's my home and it's pretty cool to see the kids that started coming here in 2004 and are now married, have families and own businesses of their own. You've seen them grow up and they've kind of seen me grow up and that's been pretty cool.”

While fans in the crowd cried as the final home game of the regular season came to an end, Taurasi said she didn't want to bottle up her feelings. She wasn't going to fight a feeling or try to feel a certain way.

“I've just taken it all in,” she said. “I've also tried to focus on the game a little bit, but there are just a lot of memories that go through your head – the good, the bad – and most of all I'm just really grateful to have had really good people around me throughout my career and going forward.”

“That's the only thing I think back on. It's been the same faces for 20 years and that feels as good as the jersey has for 20 years.”

In many ways, the game was inconsequential. Both teams had their rankings and playoff schedules locked in when the game began. Tibbetts said during his postgame press conference that his rotations were proof that beating the Storm was not the priority. He just wanted Phoenix to get through the game healthy.

It was all about Taurasi.

She played 18 minutes and finished the game with nine points, two assists and one rebound. All of her points were scored on three-pointers. She scored the first points for Phoenix with 7:08 minutes left in the first quarter, and she hit another three-pointer in the last minute of the first quarter. She scored her last points at the start of the second quarter.

After the game, Mercury showed a short video of friends, family and teammates reading a letter to Taurasi, and then Taurasi addressed the crowd. She said when she came to Arizona in 2004, she “kind of knew” she would be in Phoenix for a long time. As she tried to finish her speech, she began to say, “If this is the last time…” and was interrupted by chants of “one more year.”

Finally, she concluded, “If it’s the last time, it felt like the first time.”

In the locker room after the game, Taurasi gave a brief assessment of her future in a conversation with Griner.

“I talked to BG and I was like, 'There are still days where I think I could still do this. I still want to play basketball,' but then there's the flip side where I have days where I crawl out of bed and that's, I guess, a struggle you have when you get to that point in your career,” Taurasi said. “You have to do so much to get back on the court and that's bittersweet in a lot of ways.”

At this point, those days are 50/50, Taurasi said. No matter how good she feels on the good days or how bad she feels on the bad days, Taurasi, a mother of two, knows it's time to look at the bigger picture when thinking about her basketball future.

“I have to step back and think about what's next in my future,” she said. “I have to think about my family. So once we win this championship, that decision will be made quickly.”