-[Katie] -[woman]
-[man] Take your water. -All right.
[man speaks indistinctly] No, that-- that--
-Like in here? -[man] Or just toss it.
Yeah, sounds good. Thanks. Cool.
Good catch. For a cameraman.
[laughs]
[Katie]
Wherever you want.
I'm just here trying to be an open book.
That doesn't get me arrested.
[Diana] When I met my college coach,
he was like, "What number do you think you want to be?"
I was like, "I think I want to be zero."
He goes, "No."
I was like, "Double zero."
He goes, "No. Only assholes have double zero."
I was just like, "It's just a number."
He was like, "You're gonna be three.
You're gonna be the Babe Ruth of women's basketball."
And I was like, "Who the fuck is Babe Ruth?"
[announcer 1] No one has made more in WNBA history.
[announcer 2] Three NCAA titles, three WNBA titles.
-[announcer 3] Six Olympic gold medals. -[announcer 4] And six Euro League titles.
[announcer 5] Taurasi, three!
The league's first 10,000-point scorer!
-[announcer 6] Taurasi! -[announcer 7] This is what's all about.
Pretty simple. I just wanted to win.
[announcer 8] Taurasi! She scores!
[Diana] I didn't do it for a little bit of fame,
a little bit of money.
I did it to win and have the respect of the people around me.
This inner fire of trying to be better. Better than myself.
[announcer 9] Diana Taurasi time!
[Diana] I'm the best player in the world,
and I have to go to a communist country to get paid like a capitalist.
There was this underworld that Russia had.
I made such a bad decision.
[newscaster 1] A stellar reputation tarnished.
[newscaster 2] Extreme DUI charges.
[newscaster 3] Diana Taurasi...
-testing positive... -[newscaster 4] ...for a banned stimulant.
[Diana] I keep getting put in these situations where I have no control.
I always want to be the best motherfucker on the court.
That's literally my only goal.
Yeah!
[announcer 10] ...top one in the league.
-[announcer 11] The best in the WNBA. -[announcer 12] Best player in the world.
[man] They're going...
[announcer 13] Taurasi to beat the buzzer!
[buzzer]
[man]
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I appreciate it.
-You have a good evening. -You have a good one.
[clerk] We have you here for two nights.
-Sounds good! -Perfect.
Let's see if I... if I make it two nights.
Hey, guys, how you doing?
[man]
Guess I didn't make the wall. I didn't do enough.
Only the champions.
Wow. Nothin' but luxury here in Connecticut.
Chucha! What are you doing, Chucha?
Chucha? Chuchalini? What you got?
[Diana makes lip-smacking noises]
Chuchalini! Chucha!
She's not interested in anything but cupcake.
-[Penny] All right, we better run. - All right, hon. Bye.
-[Isla] Bye. -Bye.
I hope the little raspy voice never leaves.
It's just so cute.
You guys can come take a shit with me-- No, I'm kidding!
[Diana laughs]
[audience cheering]
[announcer 14] Lincoln Huskies!
[audience chanting "U-C-O-N-N!"]
[announcer 14] NBA NCAA tournament's most outstanding player
in 2003 and 2004,
Diana Taurasi!
Head out!
You know, really soupin' it up. I'm talkin' about...
Yeah, yeah, we did it!
[announcer 15] What's it feel like when you come back home?
-To UConn? -[Diana] It's amazing.
I haven't been in Gampel in probably 18 years.
-Really? -So, you know, every time you come back,
you see all these familiar faces and it's home.
That is nice.
Is there a game tonight?
Okay, okay.
I don't even know how we navigated these streets.
I mean, back then it's not like you had Google Maps.
It was kind of just...
well, I mean, I guess there's only two roads.
You can't get too lost.
You come here for four years,
and then there's a whole different world of basketball you have to put up with.
I loved my four years of being broke.
Being broke is a joke.
[Diana] I remember the first time.
I took my visit to Connecticut with my mom in '99.
[Geno] When they visited,
Mario, Diana's father, could not come.
So it was only Lili and Dee.
[Diana] And I was like, "What a lovely place.
Look at these trees.
Look at the foliage."
From L.A., I don't know what foliage is.
And my mom's just like...
"Where are we?" And they're like, "You're in Connecticut."
She goes, "Why are there no street lights? Why is it so dark here?
Why's there no traffic? I don't like it. My daughter's not coming to school here."
[Diana] If anyone has an Italian-Argentine mom,
it's always the family. Everything's for your kids.
Everything's for your kids,
which can get a little annoying sometimes.
No matter what.
[children laughing]
[Jessika] Growing up with Dee was just a built-in best friend.
We did everything together.
My mom always said,
"No matter what happens, don't let anyone break you guys up."
We weren't super girly.
It was just always sports.
[Lili]
[Diana] Basketball consumed my life.
And I just always wanted to do it.
I just remember running home after school,
eat a bowl of cereal, shoot a little bit...
And I'd go in my room, put the TV on, and just watch.
And that's when I kind of fell in love with '90s basketball.
With Magic and Jordan.
Kids read a book, I watched a basketball game. That was my book.
[Jessika] At half-time, she'd run out to the front porch
and try to copy whatever shot they just took.
A lot of it came from watching,
but then a lot of it came just from her natural ability.
[Mario]
[Jessika] We had a lot of boy neighbors.
They knew how good Dee was just by watching.
So, they'd go recruit guys from the park down the street saying,
"We have someone that's really good,
we think they're gonna beat you at one-on-one."
At first, they think, "She's not going to be that good,"
and then my sister would just take them to school.
They would literally sit outside waiting for my sister to come play basketball.
[Diana] So, it was 1992.
My parents had been in L.A. for 14 years.
Things weren't going like they thought it was gonna go in the U.S.
[Lili] Mario, oh, no!
They really missed their family. They missed the way of life.
[Diana] And they asked us, "What do you think if we move to Argentina?"
And we're like "sounds good," thinking it was going to be a lifelong vacation.
So we packed everything up, and we went to Argentina.
My sister loved it, 'cause she was a little bit older.
She found the social side of living in that country amazing.
[Jessika] We had a lot of family, which we were not used to.
With that came a lot of freedom.
We were able to, like, go down the street with the kids from the neighborhood
and go get ice cream and play outside until nighttime.
We were like, "Wow, we never got to do this at home."
[Diana] For me, the first couple of months were very hard.
I didn't find myself being able to integrate.
[Lili]
[Jessika] Her goal was to play the Olympics one day.
She was good, and she was already on teams in the States,
so when we moved to Argentina, it put her back in sports.
[Diana] There was not much of a basketball culture.
It was two rims with no net.
There was no coaches. There might've been one parent.
Not much structure.
[Mario]
[Diana] One night we're coming back from dinner,
my dad drives in,
three guys run in the house. Masks, guns.
My sister and I are in the back seat with guns to our head.
[gun cocks]
[voice whimpers, large thud]
[Jessika] My dad laying on the front of the car.
And the guy was hitting him in the back of the head.
[thuds]
And my sister and I start crying.
When you can't see anything, you start visualizing things.
I thought we were gonna die.
[Jessika] My dad is just like, "Be quiet, be quiet."
[Diana] And they just ransack the whole place.
They steal everything we have, which wasn't much.
[Mario]
[Jessika] I was in a bit of a depression.
I was like, "We're going back to jail.
We're not gonna get to do anything at home now.
I have to suffer the consequences."
My parents were focusing on her basketball.
All the time was spent taking her to tournaments.
I was a little resentful.
I missed Argentina.
[buzzer]
[announcer 16] And welcome back to the National Championships
for the "A" Youth girls.
At the free-throw line now, Diana Taurasi.
A lot of folks calling her the best player in this tournament.
[Diana] In 1996, our little "A" Youth team got together.
At the time, there was just hundreds of tournaments everywhere.
I just remember the weekends were the best.
I'd get in my Toyota Corolla, stick shift,
drive down to Huntington Beach,
and then we'd play like five games on a Saturday.
[announcer 17] Taurasi with the-- It's now an 18/12 basket.
Baseline move for Taurasi. And nice high off--
I got a wristband here, wristband here, a wristband around my neck.
A tall sock, a little sock, a blue shoe, a red shoe.
It was fun, it wasn't a job. There was no pressure.
I couldn't wait to do it every weekend.
With high school basketball, things got serious.
[announcer 18] Diana Taurasi!
[Jessika] As a freshman, she came in hot.
People already knew her from junior high.
And then, people from other schools were coming to watch her.
And she started filling up our gym.
There was standing room only to watch her play.
[Diana] Our "A" Youth team would travel.
We went to Florida, we'd go to Louisiana.
Basketball consumed my whole day, my whole week,
my whole month, my whole year.
I'm not talking about that. We already screwed it up.
I'm talking about, "Why would you leave that guy open?"
[Geno] I had only heard about Diana.
People had seen her play when she was really young.
So my first opportunity to see her may have been...
It was at Nike All-American camp, Indianapolis.
Fifty of the top players in the country, usually it's juniors and seniors.
And I got invited as a sophomore, which is huge.
As I'm watching her, she just looked like, "I want to be different.
I'm different how I look. I'm different how I play.
I'm different in how outgoing I am."
[Diana] I liked something about him.
[Geno] She just walked right over to where I was sitting,
in front of a bunch of other coaches, too, and started talking to me.
She basically said, "This friend of mine wants your autograph."
She goes, "I don't really care, but she wants the autograph."
You know, like that kind of attitude.
I remember the interaction as very quick, but it lasted in my head for a long time.
[Geno] As I got to talk to her more and more,
I realized that we had a lot in common.
And I even asked her, "Was your father born in Italy?"
Because there's a great wine called Taurasi,
and it's from down where I grew up.
She told me "Yes, he was," and that kind of made sense.
[newscaster 5] Well, she's a six-foot-tall point guard
who's just finished her high school basketball career
with a very impressive 3,000-plus points.
Diana Taurasi is our Mervyns California female athlete of the week.
[Diana] I was a top high school recruit.
My parents, they had no clue.
They were just trying to pay the light bill.
They weren't like, "Oh, Dee's the first one to graduate from college."
That just is not part of my upbringing.
And there was benefits like, "Hey, Mom, sign this report card
that's an F." "Okay."
"Thanks, love you."
When you get to be a sophomore, you start getting all these letters.
I wouldn't even read them, I'm like,
"I don't even know what this letter means."
A scholarship? I don't even know what a scholarship is.
Every day, I'd come home, and it's like tons of messages on the machine,
and they were all coaches of, like, really prestigious schools
calling for my sister.
There's a handful of schools that I loved already from the beginning.
I loved UCLA. That's like my hometown school.
But, when I started seeing Coach Auriemma--
He would come more often, right?
He'd come to games, he'd come to practice...
And then the home visits started.
[Lili]
[man] That's for the cute stuff.
[Geno] When I met Mario for the first time,
there was a sense already of what his background was,
what his thoughts are on life, and kids in general.
We didn't talk anything about basketball, he and I, when we first met.
We were out back, just having a drink.
Two old Italian guys talking about their family.
I was like, "That's my uncle over here."
I didn't know he was going to be the annoying uncle,
but he's my uncle, nonetheless.
That's the one thing that Coach and I bonded on from the beginning.
He just understood the way I grew up.
His name is Geno Auriemma.
The name of his game is women's basketball.
...now has the longest winning streak of any women's Division 1 basketball team.
Can you believe the reception you're getting here?
No.
[Diana] He was the new kid on the block. Got to UConn in '85.
And then next couple years, you just see this influx of talent.
Getting the number one player in the country every single year.
[Geno] Getting players for the winning mindset
became the only thing I cared about.
[Jessika] Deep down, my mom and dad always thought Diana would stay close.
'Cause they knew she could pick wherever she wanted to go.
And they always thought, "Oh, she'll go to UCLA or USC.
She'll stay local so Mom and Dad can come watch her,
and we can go see her games."
[Mario]
[Jessika] She picked a school that was so far away.
My parents were so depressed.
They had quit smoking for years, and the minute she left for college,
I would see my mom and dad outside smoking
'cause they were all stressed out and depressed.
It was a really, like, big shock to them.
[Lili]
-Yeah. -[Katie] Do you need some water, Lili?
No, I go to the bathroom.
[Katie] Let's take a moment.
-Okay. -[Katie] Why don't we take a little break?
[Jessika] We didn't have Dee, didn't hear the ball banging against the backboard.
It was a hard adjustment.
[Diana] Moving to Connecticut,
it was all these things that I was just getting used to.
I didn't know what scheduling was.
I didn't know where the classes were.
I didn't know who I was living with.
I didn't know how to do my own laundry.
And being from the West Coast going to the East Coast,
you know, people talk different, they think different.
In Connecticut, it snowed for six months,
and I was used to shooting in a t-shirt during Christmas outside.
There was all these things that were just not familiar to me.
[girls exclaiming, laughing]
[Diana] But I had a really great group of teammates.
That helped me out.
[laughs]
[Sue] Dee came into school and right away,
there's an energy to her. There's a charisma to her.
Sue, how do you feel about yesterday's game?
[girl imitating Sue] Well, I thought I did great!
Is there a reason why your hands are behind your head?
[Sue] She was the first one to tease you,
but also the first one to put her arm around you.
That says a lot about her.
[Diana] Sue is two years older than me.
You know, when you're a freshman, you're a freshman.
No one gives a shit about you. But we became friends.
The only thing we do when I'm here is eat, practice, eat.
Food in her belly, food in her belly!
[Sue] Dee had that West Coast vibe.
It's a little more chill, it's a little more showy.
In practice, she'd be a little loose with it, turn it over.
That wasn't gonna fly.
Coach Auriemma made you have to kind of rein it in.
[basketballs bouncing, sneakers squeaking]
[Geno] Before Diana started her freshman year at Connecticut,
she didn't spend a lot of time on things other than
"Give me a ball, put it in my hand, let me go play."
And coming here, there was a whole new way
to prepare to play basketball.
When she got here, we were a team
that had already won two national championships,
and now here comes Diana in.
She's the obnoxious freshman who thinks she's better than everybody else.
She wasn't a big fan, let's put it that way.
Hey Dee, when you catch the ball over there,
you gotta look for that low guy first.
She's wide open! What did I say, Dee?
Why would you leave that guy open?
Come on, man! I just said that!
[Diana] When I was young, the basketball court,
it was just a canvas and I would just throw shit at the wall.
I'd throw paint, I could throw whatever I wanted.
And I got to Connecticut, and they took all the paint away from me.
If I dribbled a little bit awkward or I would throw a pass without looking,
he would always get on me,
"Dee this is not the fucking California All-Star Game."
And I'm like, "What did I do?"
How many times do I have to say? See, that's...
I remember throwing her out of practice the third day of the season.
We were doing this drill,
and she was frustrated 'cause she couldn't get it right.
Her response to not being able to play defense on somebody
was every time they dribbled by her, she'd just punch them,
or smack them, or push them, or try to trip them, or knock them on their ass.
That's like a brat.
He thought I was undisciplined, and I would foul a lot,
and that would turn into me yelling at the ref,
and then he would yell at me, and then he'd take me out of the game.
"Well, you're not taking this serious.
Oh, you think this is just fun and games."
She's a pathological liar.
I said, "You've lived your entire life bullshitting people.
You've managed to talk your way out of a lot of things.
And your parents have no idea what you're doing,
'cause they never lived that life.
But here in the real world,
you're not going to get away with that nonsense."
I think there was two different concepts of how basketball should be played.
And he was trying to teach me the way that would impact winning.
[Geno] This is hard as hell, right?
If it was easy everybody would be undefeated and number one.
This is hard as hell. It's supposed to be.
[Diana] The practice are set up where
you will feel miserable no matter what.
Physically, it was so hard for me that I would dread going to the gym.
I was an 18-year-old kid that hadn't lifted a weight,
and conditioning, and training, all that stuff was so important to them.
He would find one little thing.
Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up!
And he would just go at it all practice.
He knew you couldn't win.
He was like, "How quickly are you gonna give up?"
I'm going to make you keep doing it until you get it right,
or until you just die trying.
I really don't care, either one of those two things is fine with me.
[Diana] I think he knew I could take it,
so I think he would turn the screws a little bit harder.
Don't go to the wing, Dee! Stay up top, Dee!
Tonight's just another game for us.
But for them, this is revenge.
[Diana] Beyond being an amazing basketball coach,
he could sit down with you for ten minutes
and he, in a weird way, knew everything about you.
[Geno] I knew what she wanted,
so I'm going to give her everything that I possibly can
so that if she has it in her,
I'm going to get it out of her, one way or the other.
I went from being, you know, the best kid on every team I ever played on,
till I got to college, I was like, "Oh... I don't think I'm gonna play this year."
I was just at the end of the bench clapping...
[crowd applause]
watching...
getting my ass lit up every day in practice...
So, we get to the second half of my freshman year.
And both our starting guards go down.
[announcer 19] Abrosimova knocks it out of bounds.
She goes down!
I hate to see this for the Huskies.
[Shea screams in pain]
[announcer 19] Shea Ralph! Oh, goodness! Oh, no!
[Diana] Whatever schedule he had me on, he was forced to play me.
He goes, "There's no age to being great."
I said, "That's cool. That's profound.
I mean, I couldn't get off the bench last month,
but now you want me to be great? Okay."
[announcer 19] Diana Taurasi into the lineup for Connecticut.
Naturally a point guard,
but she's gonna play all over the court for Connecticut this season.
[Sue] It was her time.
We're now on this march towards a National Championship.
She now has to be in the starting roll. She has to perform.
[announcer 20] Dudley stripped by Taurasi ahead to Bird,
who had to run down the lead pass and now waits for some help.
Taurasi left side three, long rebound to Schumacher.
Taurasi, another three!
[crowd cheers]
[Diana] And I was kind of like the fifth Beatle,
kind of slotted right in, and that's when I started feeling like,
"Okay, I can play here.
"I'm just as good as these guys, and I can help the team win."
She really established herself. She was playing beyond her years.
She brought an edginess that was kind of already here,
but she took it to another level.
[announcer 21] At the horn off the window! And how do you like me now?
That was the moment where our relationship changed.
[Geno] She played an unbelievable role.
She ended up being the Big East Most Valuable Player
and the Eastern Regional Most Valuable Player,
and we went to the Final Four.
-[reporter 1] Are you satisfied? -We have a lot of work to do.
I mean, you know, getting in the Final Four is a big accomplishment,
but we're looking for a little bit more.
Most teams get to the Final Four, and it's like, the year is done.
Celebrate, whatever happens is just icing on the cake.
At Connecticut, you gotta win.
[Geno] We're playing Notre Dame,
and we played pretty well in the first half.
[Diana] And we start the game off amazing.
[announcer 21] Offensive rebound, Bird for three, got it.
[commentator 1] They are UConn, they have been impressive
in the first half. And how about the...
But we didn't play very well in the second half.
[announcer 22] ...goes by a double team, bucket and a foul.
Missed a shot, offensive rebound. Schumacher, she can't hit it.
And he is not happy with Diana Taurasi.
And all of a sudden, it just started snowballing,
where the other team just picked up momentum.
[announcer, indistinct]
[announcer 22] Line drive three by Notre Dame
with the greatest lead in the game!
[announcer, indistinct]
Notre Dame then take the lead!
You could feel it getting away from you.
I'm having a complete bury.
I'm having the worst game of my life.
[announcer 22] Taurasi, 16-footer.
She has missed all ten of her shots.
Sometimes, in the game, you try so hard to make shots...
[announcer 22] And Taurasi bricks that one.
She has just had a brutal night.
[Geno] ...'cause you wanna win so bad that nothing goes right for you.
It was just one of those times where you're on the court,
and everything is just happening really fast.
And you can't control anything.
[announcer 22] ...contact getting more and more physical,
and Connecticut turns it over again.
[Diana] The stage shrunk me for the first time.
I felt tiny out there. And that's how I played.
[announcer 22] And that will be the fifth and final foul on Diana Taurasi,
who just had a brutal night shooting the basketball.
[Diana] They won the championship, because they were the better team.
[Geno] She put so much pressure on herself to be great that game.
Usually, the biggest moments are her best moments.
That's one of the few times
that I've seen her struggle in a big moment.
I was embarrassed. I was disappointed.
My parents were in the stands.
They looked like they'd seen a ghost.
At that time, Coach Auriemma was very consoling.
He just sees how miserable I am, and he comes over
and says a couple words, and that helped me out.
[Geno] She reacted the way people that are really invested
and give their heart and soul to it,
that's how they react.
[announcer 23] Diana Taurasi had an off night.
Oh for 11 from three-point land. Tough for a freshman to take.
Probably the worst game in her life, at that point.
But in a lot of ways, that informed pretty much everything moving forward.
There's no, I don't know, there's no positive twist to this.
No, not now.
Sometimes, you have to have those moments to understand what it takes.
[Diana] We go back to campus, and we get together for post-season workouts.
There was tension about going forward.
[Diana] We're all in the locker room,
and he went around the whole locker room,
and he told everyone the truth about themselves.
"You think this is a joke, you don't work hard, you don't go to class."
All the things that make you who you are,
he kinda made me look in the mirror.
And that set the tone for my next three years.
We're not gonna stop until we win a national championship.
[announcer 24] Four senior stars and a sophomore sensation seek perfection.
[Geno] There was this look on their faces
that reflected that loss for an entire year.
[announcer 25] And we are underway.
[announcer 26] Diana Taurasi!
[Diana] We were just a machine.
We each did what we had to do, every single night without fail.
[announcer 27] Beautiful move.
-[announcer 28] Did you see that? -[announcer 29] That was pretty.
[announcer 30] Perfection is spelled U-C-O-N-N!
[Sue] My class, we're seniors, so we're the older ones.
Dee's sophomore year, but Dee is the anchor of the team.
[announcer 31] Taurasi! Yet again!
Everywhere we went, turnout was insane.
[crowd chanting] U-Conn! U-Conn!
[Geno] Everyone expected us to win,
and we just played the tournament as if we knew we were gonna win.
[announcer 32] UConn's back on top!
This redemption story, it's almost destiny.
[Kate] Watching Diana in those years at UConn,
it was a revolution in women's college basketball.
[announcer 33] She makes things happen,
she's tough to defend because you don't know
whether she's gonna take the shot or drive by you.
[announcer 34] Taurasi, tough shot!
[announcer 35] And again for three!
[buzzer]
[announcer 36] And on the most talented team in the country,
the sophomore might wind up being the best player.
[announcer 37] 39 and 0, Connecticut is perfect!
2002 championship trophy to the Huskies from the University of Connecticut.
We were 39-0, undefeated.
How can you argue with that?
[newscaster 6] You've got Diana for two more years.
What's your outlook for your team with her at the helm?
It's gonna be a little harder on Dee.
Can she get us back here? I don't know.
[Diana] We got fighters on this team.
When you think of UConn, you think of domination.
Domination, that's it.
[Diana] We didn't have any seniors,
we were basically the seniors of the team a year early.
[Geno] She's in charge of these guys who have never played.
The tables had turned where I'm looking at these kids like,
"Now I get why I got on everyone's nerves."
'Cause you didn't know anything.
[Kate] Then she does something
I don't think people in women's basketball expected.
Put's a team on her back.
She was like, I'm just going to win no matter what it takes.
If you need me to score, I'm gonna score. If you need me to pass, I'll pass.
[announcer 37] Holy cow! What a pass by Taurasi!
[announcer 38] Another three for number three!
[announcer 37] Left hand...
[announcer 38] Oh, my goodness!
That was good, right?
[Geno] Dee was the one holding everything up.
That's always been one of her biggest strengths.
If you're good, she'll elevate you to great.
If you're average, she'll make you good.
And she took every one of our players and just lifted them.
And I felt like as long as we have her pulling the strings,
we're going to be okay.
[Diana] Final Four finals.
[announcer 39] She's on a roll right now. They can't find a way to stop her.
You can't let Diana Taurasi shoot open threes, people.
I just did what I had to do.
[announcer 40] Connecticut Huskies!
After going 39-0, they go 37-1
and win back-to-back national championships!
-That was a back-to-back, right? -[woman] Yeah.
Back-to-back! I was just making sure.
Yeah, all right, I'm good. I'm happy.
This my last go-around with this team and my coach,
and I want it to be a good one.
[announcer 41] Perhaps the best women's college basketball player of all time.
[announcer 42] What separates her is her mentality.
Diana launches this UConn dynasty.
Every young player wanted to put on that UConn jersey.
[newscaster 7] The team has reached rock star status.
[Lili]
Everybody wearing her jersey in college,
and I was like, dang, she really is a star.
All the sacrifices we made with leaving Argentina,
it was all worth it to see her play at UConn.
This moment at UConn is like a collision of ESPN
and a tiny town that has drawn the best recruits across the country.
ESPN introduces the national audience to the players
who wear the Huskies uniform.
And they are like rock stars.
Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and now you.
Oh! Oh, really? Is this for me?
-Yeah. -Thank you!
[announcer 43] Taurasi has led her team to two consecutive titles.
Is number three in the cards tonight?
She has been the leader of this club ever since she arrived.
Two-time Naismith national player of the year, leads Connecticut all-time.
Third all-time in points.
The only collegiate player invited to try out for the national team.
[announcer 44] Tonight, we stand on the brink of history.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer 43] UConn wins three national championships in a row!
Diana Taurasi will go out on top!
[Geno] If it wasn't for the way Diana Taurasi is,
and the way she plays the game and the kind of teammate she is,
there's no way that the rest of her teammates
would've been able to do what they did tonight.
[crowd cheering]
[Diana] Look at you, fucking stud! Fucking stud!
-How are you? -I haven't seen you guys in forever!
[happy chatter and laughter]
[Diana] ...making gin sours!
[Diana]
I can't believe how many people came back.
That's a testament to what we created here.
But I think it's a testament to the people that graduated from here
and how much you still hold the four years that you had here
in such unbelievable regard
that you would want to keep recreating this as much as possible.
[Diana] Playing for Coach Auriemma,
everything you do is at the highest level.
I was just so thankful that I had that four years of training.
After UConn, it was time for me to go into the pros,
and I felt as ready as you can be.
[Pam] Hi, I'm Pam Ward,
and welcome to ESPN and NBA TV's first round coverage of the WNBA draft.
The class of 2004 considered to be the best ever.
This class also represents the first group of players
who were high school freshman when the WNBA began,
and they knew there was a future for them in the pros.
With the first pick of the 2004 WNBA draft,
the Phoenix Mercury select Diana Taurasi from the University of Connecticut.
Washington will pick...
[Mario]
[Lili]
[ESPN reporter 2] Diana, congratulations.
Some people are saying you are the future of women's basketball. Are you?
Um, we'll see. I think there's...
[Jessika] When Dee went to the WNBA draft,
she wore this weird pantsuit...
Wow.
...with like a really low-cut shirt, had her hair down...
She looked like a Barbie doll.
You gotta do what you gotta do. You gotta get the league out there.
[Jessika] And she's like, "I don't know if I like this."
[Lili]
[interviewer] I want you to tell me something about yourself
that most people don't know about Diana.
Um...
[Kate] In the early days of the WNBA,
they felt they had to capture the cookie-cutter audience
that they thought was gonna bring in the bigger dollars
and make advertisers happy.
Everybody had to be presented as straight,
hyper-feminized, mainstream, pretty, quiet women.
[Sue] Where Dee was just incredibly under-marketed,
was the swag, was the confidence, was the one-liner.
I don't dance for free.
One technical!
Coach Auriemma's been great the whole time.
He's gettin' a little big over there. The tan looks good. I'm out.
[Sue] Diana has the biggest personality.
She was the WNBA's jackpot.
But she never got the chance to really live into that.
They were trying to go to the opposite way of what Dee was bringing.
-Do what we gotta do for this league! -Whoo!
WNBA! It's fantastic!
[Diana] I had to navigate what makes them happy.
[women cheer]
[Diana] I get it, we're trying to sell tickets here.
But it was all an act.
-Was that good? -[woman] Yeah.
Hi, I'm Diana Taurasi.
When I wake up in the morning, I'm tuning in to Cold Pizza.
[Diana] I had to do whatever they wanted so that I could go play basketball.
[weatherman] As the high clouds move out tomorrow, we'll top out at about 100.
[weatherwoman] 98 degrees currently in uptown Phoenix.
I've only been here a week and a half, and there really hasn't been
you know, that much time to see the town,
but I like it so far.
You know, that laid-back sense out here, which I like a lot.
So, it's really good.
Uh, ye-- Oh! Didn't we see you last night?
[Diana] I was excited to become a pro,
and I was excited to see a different type of basketball.
[announcer 44] They're ready to go here.
Katie!
[Diana] It was a big change.
The style of play was different.
[announcer 45] Taurasi comes up short.
[announcer 46] Taurasi, she goes down on the ground, there's no call.
[announcer 47] Taurasi couldn't get the shot off, it's knocked out of bounds.
[Diana] And all of a sudden,
you're the young kid and you have to catch up again.
[announcer 48] Taurasi, from way downtown, arching shot,
and the Sparks pull one out against the Phoenix Mercury.
Seventeen consecutive losses.
[Diana] When you go to a school like Connecticut you do a lot of winning.
And then when you get to the pros you do a lot of losing.
My first couple of years in the WNBA, we didn't even make the playoffs.
[announcer 49] Diana Taurasi, not happy.
That's just what the pros are. Like, when do you ever win?
Sucks.
You think you can control everything, and then all of a sudden,
you control nothing when you get to the pros.
[Kate] Diana was coming from the spotlight of a Storrs, Connecticut,
and then walking into a professional product
that had none of that.
When Diana's first in the WNBA,
it's not seen in the sports business world as a valuable commodity.
That affects everything.
[Diana] My first salary as a rookie, I was at $42,000.
Before tax, of course.
[photographer] Just a little, like... All right, there you go.
[Diana] Sue, she was a sounding board for my rookie year,
and then going into my second year,
she goes, "Let's go to Russia."
And I was like, Russia? What am I gonna do in Russia?
They take care of you, it's pretty decent, money's good.
And I was like, that sounds pretty good.
It was already like, let's do this.
[ESPN reporter 3] Thanks. Good luck to you.
-Pam, back to you. -Coach, we need more money tonight!
[Diana] Twenty years ago, going overseas is what everyone did,
and that's where you made most your money.
It was just a different type of lifestyle.
Chartering everywhere, the hotels we were staying at,
the best watches, the best diamonds.
That's a big difference for a kid that had no money.
We had the world at our fingertips.
Shabtai owned Spartak, the best Russian team.
He just always wanted to make sure you were taken care of.
There was always rumors and there was always stories.
I don't know if anyone knew where his money came from.
"Businessman." We just went with it.
There's no point in asking questions.
This is a world that I will never understand.
We're the best team in the world,
and then all of a sudden, it was gone, just like that. of.