Diana Taurasi closes out what could be final home game of her 20-year career

PHOENIX (AP) — Diana Taurasi stood in the middle of the court where she won championships and broke records during one of the greatest careers in women's basketball history.

She tried to get out the words out, but Phoenix's fans quickly interrupted.

“If this is the last time ... “ Taurasi said before the crowd started a lengthy chant of ”One more year!"

Taurasi hasn't decided if she will return for a 21st season, making Thursday night's game against Seattle as potentially the final at home in her storied career.

The Storm spoiled Taurasi's night with an 89-70 win, but there's no doubt what playing in Phoenix has meant to the player who has widely been called the best of all time.

“If it is the last time, it felt like the first time,” Taurasi said.

Taurasi’s teammates wore her No. 3 jersey — with a head of a goat (greatest of all time) sticking out of the number — for player introductions, a nod to the possibility it was her last game.

Despite a deafening roar during player introductions and her college coach Geno Auriemma of UConn in the stands, Taurasi treated the game like any other, slapping hands with her teammates before trotting onto the floor.

The night didn't turn out the way Taurasi wanted, but she got one last curtain call as Mercury fans started a chant of “We want DT” with three minutes left in the blowout loss. Taurasi's return lasted less than a minute before she jogged back to the bench waving as the fans chanted “One more year!”

“On a night like tonight, you don’t want to make it about you — you want to make it about DT,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “This is a moment, when you experience it, you’re going to remember forever.”

The 42-year-old Taurasi finished with nine points on 3-of-9 shooting in 18 minutes, but gained much more in a game that meant little in the WNBA standings with the Mercury locked into a first-round playoff series against Minnesota.

The Mercury played a tribute video before Taurasi addressed the crowd and she lingered on the floor, hugging and taking pictures well after the final buzzer, including a long embrace with Auriemma.

"It's bittersweet in a lot of ways," Taurasi said. "When the season is over, I'll have a better idea of what it looks like for me in the future.”

Taurasi has been coy about retirement, remaining noncommittal while hinting it might be right around the corner.

The Mercury stoked the retirement talk embers on social media with a post last week that said “ If this is it ” and another early Thursday that included the reading of a letter by her wife, former Mercury player Penny Taylor.

Whenever Taurasi does hang up her basketball shoes, her place in women's basketball history will already be secured.

Taurasi won three straight national championship at UConn and kept on winning after the Mercury selected her with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 WNBA draft. She earned WNBA rookie of the year honors and won the first of three WNBA titles in 2007.

The Glendale, California native is one of four players to win multiple WNBA Finals MVPs (2009, 2014) and was the league MVP for the 2009 season. She won six Euroleague championships while playing year round most of her career and claimed her sixth Olympic gold medal at this summer's Paris Games. She's the WNBA's career scoring leader — about 3,000 more than Tina Charles in second — top playoff scorer and has made the most 3-pointers in league history.

Taurasi also made the all-WNBA first team 10 times and is an 11-time WNBA All-Star, including this season.

And she's barely slowed at 42, averaging 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists while leading the Mercury to the playoffs.

“There’s still days where I’m like: I can still do this, I can still want to play basketball,” Taurasi said. “But then there’s days where I can barely crawl out of bed. That’s the struggle when you’re at this point in your career; you have to do so much you have to do to get back on the court."

Taurasi will be back on the court at least twice, against the Minnesota in the playoffs.

The Mercury will need to win at least one game to keep her season — and potentially career going — but Taurasi will go out on top no matter how it ends.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

John Marshall, The Associated Press