WNBA’s all-time leading scorer Diana Taurasi re-signed with the Phoenix Mercury on Monday, the first day allowed for free agent signings.
The 38-year-old Taurasi agreed to a two-year contract that could lead to the end of what will be a Hall of Fame career. The pact will carry Taurasi until at least the 2022 season when he turns 40 and will give him the opportunity to reach 10,000 points in his career.
According to a report Monday from Winsidr’s Rachel Galligan, Taurasi, as expected, signed a super-max two-year contract that pays $ 221,450 this year and $ 228,094 in 2022. She will join teammates Skylar Diggins-Smith and Brittney Griner at the super max level. All three are candidates to play for the United States at the Tokyo Olympics.
By comparison, Stephen Curry, the highest paid in the NBA, will earn $ 43 million this year. That is, the point guard of the Golden State Warriors will earn 194 times more than Taurasi.
In 2020, Taurasi and Diggins-Smith, playing together for the Mercury for the first time, went 13-9 until the second round of the WNBA playoffs. Taurasi had 12 votes for the league’s first star team.
For Taurasi, the selection of the star team was the record number when he achieved it for 14 of his 16-year career. She was fifth in WNBA scoring (18.7 points per game) and eighth in assists (4.5) in a 2019 recovery season when back and hamstring injuries limited her to playing in six games.
Combining 2019 with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Taurasi has played in 25 regular season games in the past two years, scoring 382 points compared to 682 in 2018 alone when he was first team in the WNBA for the 10th time.
The 6-0 point guard now has 8,931 career points and needs more than 500 in each of the next two seasons to reach 10,000. Tina Thompson, whom Taurasi topped in scoring in 2017, is second in WNBA career points with 7,488.
Taurasi is also first in career field goals in the WNBA (2,821), triples (1,164) and free throws (2,125) and fourth in assists in his career (1,953).
Taurasi, the top pick in the 2004 draft, has played in all but one WNBA season since then, missing out on 2015 to play solely in Russia, where he earned a seven-figure salary for multiple seasons. She led the Mercury to WNBA titles in 2007, 2009 and 2014 and was the 2009 WNBA MVP and the 2009 and 2014 WNBA Finals MVP.
Taurasi played on United States gold medal-winning teams at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and on teams that won six Euroleague titles. At the University of Connecticut, she was a three-time national champion and Naismith Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004.