{"id":1430,"date":"2023-08-20T04:16:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T04:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/diana-taurasi-phoenix-mercury-guard-becomes-first-wnba-player-to-score-10000-career-points\/"},"modified":"2023-08-20T04:16:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T04:16:06","slug":"diana-taurasi-phoenix-mercury-guard-becomes-first-wnba-player-to-score-10000-career-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/diana-taurasi-phoenix-mercury-guard-becomes-first-wnba-player-to-score-10000-career-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Diana Taurasi: Phoenix Mercury guard becomes first WNBA player to score 10,000 career points"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1\">\n<figure class=\"gs-u-mt0 gs-u-mb-alt+ story-body__media story-body__media--figure qa-story-body-media story-body__media--lead\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-0\"><span class=\"gs-u-display-block story-body__media\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0\"><span class=\"gs-u-display-block gs-o-responsive-image\" style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0.0\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"gel-brevier gs-u-ph+ gs-u-pv-alt story-body__media__caption story-body__media__caption--image\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-0.1\">Diana Taurasi is in her 19th season in the WNBA and is one of the most decorated basketball Olympians of all time, having won five gold medals with Team USA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p role=\"introduction\" class=\"qa-introduction gel-pica-bold\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1.0\">Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi made WNBA history on Thursday when she became the first player to score 10,000 career points.<\/span><\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2\">\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0.0\">Taurasi, 41, reached the milestone with a three-point shot in the third quarter during Mercury&#8217;s 91-71 home win against Atlanta Dream.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0\">She finished with 42 points to also became the oldest player in WNBA history to produce a 40-point game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4.0\">&#8220;I just felt good and they were looking for me,&#8221; Taurasi told ESPN.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.0\">Taurasi, a three-time WNBA champion and two-time WNBA finals Most Valuable Player, ended the night with a total of 10,024 career points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6.0\">She added: &#8220;Sometimes [the shots] go in because they go in, because it&#8217;s your day. And [this] was my night.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7.0\">Taurasi started the game knowing 18 points would take her to the 10,000 mark and scored 10 by half time, before quickly adding a two-point lay-up and a three-pointer to her tally. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8.0\">On the Mercury&#8217;s next possession, Taurasi took a pass from Moriah Jefferson and successfully completed the shot to the delight of the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9.0\">WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert congratulated Taurasi and said she &#8220;continues to author new chapters in an illustrious WNBA career&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10\"><span data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10.0\">&#8220;We are honoured to witness this milestone,&#8221; Engelbert said, adding Taurasi&#8217;s achievement was &#8220;testament to her skill, determination, and unwavering dedication to the game&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"gs-u-display-block story-body__media gs-u-mb-alt+ qa-story-body-media\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-11\"><span class=\"gs-u-display-block gs-o-responsive-image\" style=\"padding-bottom:11.875%;\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-11.0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/624\/cpsprodpb\/17F0D\/production\/_127816089_sounds_header_grey_8-1x.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1280px) 800px, (min-width: 900px) 624px, (min-width: 600px) 976px, (min-width: 400px) 624px, 400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/400\/cpsprodpb\/17F0D\/production\/_127816089_sounds_header_grey_8-1x.jpg 400w, https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/624\/cpsprodpb\/17F0D\/production\/_127816089_sounds_header_grey_8-1x.jpg 624w, https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/800\/cpsprodpb\/17F0D\/production\/_127816089_sounds_header_grey_8-1x.jpg 800w, https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/976\/cpsprodpb\/17F0D\/production\/_127816089_sounds_header_grey_8-1x.jpg 976w\" alt=\"Listen on Sounds banner\" class=\"qa-srcset-image\" data-reactid=\".17h3qn5oxba.0.0.0.1.$image-11.0.0\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/basketball\/66403398\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diana Taurasi is in her 19th season in the WNBA and is one of the most decorated basketball Olympians of all time, having won five gold medals with Team USA Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi made WNBA history on Thursday when she became the first player to score 10,000 career points. Taurasi, 41, reached the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}