Diana Taurasi becomes first WNBA player to reach 9k career points originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Diana Taurasi is already regarded as one of, if not the best WNBA player of all time. She added another historic achievement to her resume on Sunday.
Taurasi became the first WNBA player to ever reach 9,000 career points in Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks. The veteran guard for the Phoenix Mercury drove to the basket from the right lane, putting the ball off the glass and in to surpass the 9,000 point-threshold.
The 39-year-old came into the game just six points shy of the milestone. She had been sitting at 8,994 career points for a while, as she missed the past nine games with a chest injury suffered on May 16.
A former standout at UConn where she won three national titles, Taurasi has enjoyed a legendary WNBA career. She is a three-time WNBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, 10-time All-Star, five-time scoring champion, 2004 Rookie of the Year, 10-time All-WNBA First Team member, four-time All-WNBA Second Team member and 2009 WNBA MVP. She became the WNBA’s all-time scoring leader back in June of 2017, passing Tina Thompson, who still sits in second with 7,488.
In addition, Taurasi is a four-time Olympic gold medalist and, along with Sue Bird, is vying to become the first basketball player to win five gold medals, as both will compete with the U.S. women’s basketball team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.