GOATs are different. They not like us.
It was true with Michael Jordan. It was true with Kobe Bryant. It is true with Diana Taurasi.
All of them were great in the greatest of ways: Unapologetic. Unbeatable. Cold-blooded. Candid. Ruthless. Hardcore. Elite trash talkers.
“You think I’m (bad)? You should see my older sister,” Taurasi told me during a sit-down interview in 2016. “Ninth-grade high school summer league. The ref tells her to tuck in her shirt. They had a beef. Tuck in her shirt? My sister gives (the ref) the double bird and then moons him. She got kicked off the team, almost expelled from school. For a double bird and a moon.”
I have a treasured history with Taurasi, one of the most quotable athletes in history. She is a hot-blooded daughter of immigrants — a father born in Italy and a mother he met in Argentina. Taurasi was a champion at every level of the sport, unflinching with the truth and her beliefs. She came with no BS and no fake polish. My kind of superstar.
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She was once suspended for an abundance of technical fouls, and in a show of rebellion, spent her time off relaxing poolside at The Phoenician resort. She would say things to WNBA officials that would make a vulgarian blush. She was a long-time critic of the pay scale in the WNBA and once accepted money from her overseas team in Russia to sit out an entire season, embarrassing the league in the process. At the time, she was making $107,000 with the Phoenix Mercury.
Taurasi never fit into the squeaky-clean and wholesome image the WNBA craved. Which partly explains her apathy to the current Caitlin Clark phenomenon, a player who checks all the preferred boxes.
In another lifetime, I was blessed to cover Michael Jordan. During his time with the White Sox, I heard rumors that he was playing pickup basketball games at night with his new spring training teammates. I saw the story of a lifetime materialize before my eyes.
“Michael, can I join you guys at your next game?” I asked him at his locker.
Jordan spun around, a different Jordan than I had ever experienced. I had tiptoed into his world and his competitive realm, and I immediately felt his wrath.
“Why?” he demanded. “You can’t play.”
In 2009, I tried again. I asked Taurasi if she would play me in H-O-R-S-E and allow me to write about the experience. Unlike Jordan, she agreed.
In warmups, I committed a key tactical error. I made an off-handed comment about the size of the WNBA ball. She took offense. Her demeanor changed immediately. With ice and fire, she beat me three consecutive games without yielding a single letter, snarling along the way. It was breathtaking.
Seven years later, during our 2016 interview, she sounded like she was nearing the end of her illustrious career. She already had won three NCAA titles, three gold medals, and three WNBA titles at the time. She had changed her lifestyle after a DUI arrest. She had changed her diet, prolonging her career to unprecedented lengths. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro were presumed to be her last.
It took her nine more years to announce her retirement. Not surprising. With the real GOATS, the need to compete never goes away. The flame never stops burning. Which is how they became GOATS in the first place.
Reach Bickley at [email protected]. Listen to Bickley & Marotta mornings from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports
Follow @danbickley
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