I will repeat it: Why is Diana Taurasi not playing in Phoenix?
On Sunday, the San Antonio Silver Stars demolished the Mercury, 89-47, extending their franchise-best winning streak to 11 games and handing the Mercury their worst loss ever.
That’s 42 points, by the way – Jen Rizzotti times two.
Just over a week ago, DT3 was standing on the gold medal platform with her USA teammates celebrating their London triumph under Geno Auriemma.
Diana looked tremendous in London, as energetic and involved as she always has been, worthy of the accolades that followed. She led the USA in scoring (12.4). She was great.
It was quite a performance considering she hadn’t played in 18 of the Mercury’s first 20 games this season because of a hip flexor injury. So after the Olympics, you figured she was prepared to step right back into the Phoenix lineup, especially since they are missing Penny Taylor, Charde Houston and Alexi Gray-Lawson, all out with injuries.
But Taurasi did not play in the first two WNBA after the break. The Mercury said she missed Sunday’s game because of a dental procedure.
Ok, but…
The Mercury (4-17) are already far out of the playoff race, better only than pitiful Tulsa in the West. They trailed Seattle by six games for fourth with just 13 games to play.
If the Mercury don’t make the postseason, they will qualify for the 2013 draft lottery that will yield, in no particular order, Brittany Griner, Elena Delle Donne and Skylar Diggins.
You figure if the Mercury win the first pick, they will take the game-changing Griner, the 6-8 center who led Baylor to a 40-0 national championship season.
Or maybe not. Maybe they could trade the pick to the team with the No. 2 pick, especially if its Tulsa, and maybe get Liz Cambage in return and Elena Delle Donne or Diggins as well.
That would be nice.
Here’s the point. If this were the NBA, and LeBron James or Kobe returned from a staring role in the Olympics and then didn’t play immediately for the Heat or Lakers, I’m thinking someone would legitimately want to know why. And it would be someone with a pen or a camera or a recorder.
No one is asking in WNBA. You know why? Because no one really cares.
Diana has long been intent to take a long period of time off to rest. She has said it many times. Unfortunately, this was an Olympic year and her intense desire to play in London forced her to make the decision to sit out in Phoenix after struggling physically in the first week of the season. It paid off big time.
But now the situation seems different. For the sake of the Phoenix fans, the Mercury need to say whether to expect Diana back or not this season. If its the consensus that she not play, for whatever reason, that is fine. But let’s just get it out there so no one continues to wonder.
Frankly, it just doesn’t look good now. There are going to be those who assume the Mercury may just want to sit tight and wait for the draft – and the bounty that may await.
If that’s the case, the WNBA should be the ones on the case of Mercury management right now.
If Diana just isn’t well enough to play, and doesn’t want to risk a recurrence of injury before she goes back to Russia to play again with Sue Bird – where the money is large – that’s OK, too. People will understand.
But let’s stop putting Diana in the middle of something that is beginning to feel a little uncomfortable from the outside in.
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23 Responses to Why Is Diana Taurasi Not Playing In Phoenix?
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Well, perhaps somebody else did notice.
http://espn.go.com/wnba/story/_/id/8284563/wnba-phoenix-mercury-falling-lottery-looms
Really? This is too apologistic (is that a word?). Diana always wanted to rest?! So, has she given back her salary for the Mercury? Remember those badminton players in the Olympics? They were banned for not competing fully. Diana showed no ills in London, and played more minutes than any other player. She is not injured. If she does not play, or has her play seriously limited, she should be fined, and the Mercury should be banned from the lottery.
See: http://www.fullcourt.com/clay-kallam/21727/taurasi-must-play-or-both-she-and-phoenix-must-pay
maybe she has a boo boo!!!!
BK Dad & Jim: Good investigative reporting guys….guess John A. missed these other articles.
Let us not jump to into any indictment here. It’s unfair to compare Diana’s situation with a multi-million$ player and to a couple of hand-to-mouth bamington players. She missed most of the season due to an inqury (are you doubting that?), then she was healthy enough (or played in pain to what might be her last olympic- who would give that up), and now we are told that she had a dental procedure which required her being out. I believe a coach can, legitimately, keep a player out or not play someone, while having them available. It’s o’k to be curious, but all the other remarks are nothing but conspiracies. And like all good conspiracies the ones intimated here follow the terrain very well. But really, why play her at this point? for the fans? the fans need to know? Come on. Keep her off the court and develop the other players; better to do that than having her run up and down the court meaninglessly as those olympian players you mentioned. All teams do that– keep players out when things/games are hopeless.
Who knows what the plan was? Perhaps the Mercury were hoping to slip into the playoffs without Taurasi, and then have her make a push once there. Sitting her to be prepared could have been part of that plan.
The GM/President of the Mercury, Ann Drysdale, was the color commentator for TV broadcasts of the Olympics women’s tournament. She was vocally supportive of Diana and what she was doing. Voluntarily supportive, I might add.
I fail to see how this is any different than baseball players (look at the other news) or other athletes “shutting it down” when the season gets bad. All with the support of management. They both need to take a longer term view of the situation. If this was a tight race, I’d guess that things would be different.
I certainly would be the last one to criticize a team for protecting one of its major assets or a player looking out for their health or career. There’s plenty of crap that goes on that does turn me off, but not that. I find this approach far better for the fan than teams that spend the least they can to put more money in the owner’s pockets, even though that is within the rules. At least the Mercury are working toward better seasons in the future. The Mercury are paying for this already, in lots of ways.
BTW, my intention in offering that link was NOT to call out John A. or any of that. It was only to let people read more thoughts on the subject and show that John was not alone in his opinion. I won’t do that again!
The same is true for about 5 other teams in the WNBA.
Ann Meyers Drysdale is no longer employed by the Phoenix Mercury.
Is that new? Like really new?
I should have researched my comment more closely, as Drysdale is no longer GM/President. According to many reports and the Phoenix web page, she is listed as VP of both the Phoenix Sun and Mercury. (Other Phoenix celestial bodies to follow, perhaps…)
You are wrong. Ann Meyers Drysdale is still employed by the Mercury as the VP of both the Mercury and the Suns.
Maybe this is just a win, win, win for Mercury and DT. DT gets the rest, with a real medical issue, and Mercury gets to pick Griner or EDD or Skylar (in that order). DT has been exhausted for three years or more. The Money and Notoriety is like a drug, it’s intoxicating–hard to give up. But DT is old for running games. The knees and legs hurt constantly–will eventually require surgery at this age. Oh, she is young on many levels but not for running every night. What ever DT needs I am for. If it helps the Mercury–so be it. DT was one of the three reasons USA won gold.
If DT doesn’t show up in Connecticut–sales will drop?? Maybe 10 tickets, maybe none. Fine Dt? Is Kallam crazy? If DT walks on the WNBA–sales will go down all over and she makes so much in Russia, WNBA can’t compare. Conspiracies even in legal terms are almost impossible to prove. The article seems to be a hatch job on the Mercury and DT– DT for 10 year has had back, foot, leg problems. I was out of work for a week with a single tooth problem- I had issues even after it was pulled–so I believe the Dental Problems. But if DT told me the sky was green–I’d believe it. If the Wnba wants to lose their franchise–keep trying to make DT out a liar.
very good so what!!!!
Wow, some pretty dumb comments and admissions on your part to say the least. Time for you to pull your tongue out of DT’s behind and gain some perspective on your misguided thought processes.
The WNBA is on fragile footing. Apparently, only three teams make money. This even with no NBA or college competition in the summer, and a serious salary cap. The players make most of their income from playing overseas, or sitting in front of a TV camera during the WNBA offseason. Trying to lean on the players to devote more energy to the WNBA would probably be counterproductive. (That’s not to say that they don’t bust their butts – I truly believe that they do.)
Still, the WNBA is the most competitive professional women’s basketball league in the world. It also tries to make sense on a business level, where virtually all the other leagues around the world do not. Bankruptcy is as much a part of teams in Europe as rebounds are.
It’s a tough problem.
But, look at the NBA from the 50′s and 60′s. Even the Russell led Celtics played in front of empty seats in a smaller league. It really did take a while for the NBA to catch on.
Besides, basketball fans in CT are really jaded in their view. Outside of Tennessee, not many other places really give a fig about women’s basketball at any level. Or any women’s sports. Take a look at the bleachers for NCAA softball games, for one example. It’s sad, but that’s the way it is right now.
WHO TOLD YA ONLY 3 TEAMS MAKE MONEY???
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2011/12/13/Franchises/Silver-Stars.aspx
Obviously, this doesn’t consider tax benefits for the owners.
BK Dad. Your assessment of Women’s basketball leaves a dismal message, only partly true. The ACC WBB program is big time and viable. The CAA is doing fine even if they are playing catchup. Ohio fans see the light, as does Minnesota and Florida. Yes UConn fans are jaded. Jaded because they have the top Womens basketball coach. But would you dismiss Notre Dame, Stanford, Baylor, Texas, OKlahoma,KU, Kstate, Iowa (i COULD NAME MORE) as programs without followings ?? BK–you’ve shown your intelligence–but (Ignorance means you don’t know what you don’t know) you show your ignorance of the total Colleg Womens programs. Thanks for the pointing me to the Kallam site, he’s and idiot.Which you certainly are not.
Well, I am just ignorant then.
Please investigate the attendance totals at all those schools over a long period. It really varies a lot from year to year.
Remember when Duke would fill the place?
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/reports/Attend/11att.pdf
I wish it wasn’t so, but women’s sports are only very slowly making progress. But, hey – it really wasn’t that long ago that title IX was put into effect. Hopefully things will continue an upward climb.
john why? why? why r u writing a book on di???? if u were the mgmt of di’s team what would u do…..next year ur beloved edd…….H’MMMMMM
“WHO DA THUNK IT?”
Tulsa has tanked since the Shock moved from Detroit. They intentionally threw away their team and were rewarded with 6′ 8″ Cambage.
EDD will play for the Mystics or the Dream. Griner will play for the Shock or SA if the SS are willing to trade 3 legitimate WNBA starters and 2 #1 draft picks.
SD will play for the CT Sun, where Lawson will help her both on the court and at ESPN. Say bye bye to Montgomery, Jones, and 2 first round draft picks.
WNBA Draft needs to be revamped. Minnesota was rewarded with great draft picks for having legitimate injuries. The Lynx played their draft picks right and won a WNBA championship. Phoenix is gambling and will lose.
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