Diana Taurasi, WNBA Records Watch & Stats

[Trappa]

There are a few Taurasi threads going around -- the Voepel piece, the booing thread, the suspension, etc. -- but I wanted to make one about the records she is chasing this season (knock on wood, no injuries), and touch on her overall stats. Just a thread to have it all in one place since she has some milestones coming up.

The last game against Dallas she tied Katie Smith's career 3 FGM at 906. She will, presumably, become the league's outright leading rainmaker of 3s in Phoenix's next outing against Chicago.

And she now sits at 7344 career points, third and creeping up behind Catchings (7380) in second and Thompson (7488) sitting atop the league's all time leading scorer list.

She's had a slow start to the season, averaging 12.8 PPG while shooting a rough 28.6% FG and 26.1% 3FG. What made me do a double-take, though, was this: she is averaging .5 APG. Less than an assist a game from a player with her court vision and natural passing skills is strange.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dee has 51 points this season. That puts her at 7,362, or 126 short of Tina. That should take about 7-8 games.

 

[Trappa]

Dee has 51 points this season. That puts her at 7,362, or 126 short of Tina. That should take about 7-8 games.

Lol I should have added a disclaimer -- never trust the English major/lit teacher to have the up-to-date numbers. Thanks for the correction MilfordHusky!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Lol I should have added a disclaimer -- never trust the English major/lit teacher to have the up-to-date numbers. Thanks for the correction MilfordHusky!

I think my numbers are correct. I sure hope so.

 

[Trappa]

Things to watch for in tonight's game: Phoenix vs. Chicago, 8:00 start time (for those who want to watch a game other than Finals Game 1)

 

[Trappa]

37 points, including 8 3s, and moving into second place all time. She hasn't brought it much this season, but man did she show out last night.

 

[MilfordHusky]

37 points, including 8 3s, and moving into second place all time. She hasn't brought it much this season, but man did she show out last night.

Dee was on her game and then some!! If you are going to break a record, blow it away!

 

[Trappa]

Bumping because Phoenix plays New York at MSG this afternoon, 3:00 EST. Taurasi, Charles, Stokes, and Hartley! A good game for Husky watchers.

 

[Trappa]

Q&A with DT after the Sunday game against New York.

Vertsberger: I wanted to ask you about Geno Auriemma, he had this quote saying there aren’t more female coaches because women chose not to be, what’s your take on that?
Taurasi: I think that’s a little bit skewed. I mean I look around the WNBA right now and I see Katie on the bench. I see Penny. I see Sandy Brondello. I see Taj McWilliams and Bridget Pettis. I see Cheryl Reeve and all the people she’s tutoring. There are. I just don’t think we get the same opportunity to be recycled. Men coaches get recycled like a bottle of Coke, in every sport.


Q&A: Diana Taurasi on marriage, officiating and being an American

 

[UcMiami]

Fun interview.
It annoys me when people take what Geno said and condense it down to 'because they choose not to be' - it was a fairly long answer he gave and if I were to condense it down to a single definitive statement it would be 'because they have so many other and often better options now'.

When you look at the business of sports only - the opportunity for women in the last 30 years at all levels of sports administration, sports medicine, media participation, sports agencies and promotion, etc. has exploded and is drawing on the same pool of women who wanted to follow a career connected with sports from which the coaches come, and they had been excluded from most of those paths previously. That doesn't even speak to the non-sports career paths that have expanded for them.

 

[Trappa]

Fun interview.
It annoys me when people take what Geno said and condense it down to 'because they choose not to be' - it was a fairly long answer he gave and if I were to condense it down to a single definitive statement it would be 'because they have so many other and often better options now'.

When you look at the business of sports only - the opportunity for women in the last 30 years at all levels of sports administration, sports medicine, media participation, sports agencies and promotion, etc. has exploded and is drawing on the same pool of women who wanted to follow a career connected with sports from which the coaches come, and they had been excluded from most of those paths previously. That doesn't even speak to the non-sports career paths that have expanded for them.

The "but they have so many more different opportunities now" argument skirts around the issue, IMO. Men have the same variety (or more) of those "other" opportunities and they are still choosing to coach and are over-represented. If the argument is women are finally getting more opportunities, wouldn't men, who have that same level of opportunity and then some, have a similar dearth of participants? Plus, I'm not sold on the argument that it's the same pool of people. Tamika Catchings wanted a FO job but most definitely did not want to coach, for example. Very different sets of interests, challenges, required skills.

 

[Trappa]

Only 29 points to go. Dee could potentially become the leading all time scorer in Phoenix's next game against Chicago!

 

[UcMiami]

The "but they have so many more different opportunities now" argument skirts around the issue, IMO. Men have the same variety (or more) of those "other" opportunities and they are still choosing to coach and are over-represented. If the argument is women are finally getting more opportunities, wouldn't men, who have that same level of opportunity and then some, have a similar dearth of participants? Plus, I'm not sold on the argument that it's the same pool of people. Tamika Catchings wanted a FO job but most definitely did not want to coach, for example. Very different sets of interests, challenges, required skills.

But as you say men have always had those other opportunities - and while the percentage of men in those 'other' opportunities still dwarfs women it is no longer 100%. How many women called games, occupied sports desks, were sideline reports, were trainers, sports therapists, ADs/assistant ADs, publicists for sports teams, sports lawyers, agents, etc. thirty years ago compared to today not to mention the non-sports expansion of possibilities in executive wings, owners of start ups, etc.
In Geno's original statement he talked about his wife having two career opportunities coming out of college - elementary/HS teacher and nursing - a simplification to be sure but in 1970 or thereabouts not that much of one - very few female lawyers, lots of female paralegals, very few doctors lots of nurses, very few executive track jobs, lots of secretarial ones. For athletically inclined women - coaching. CD2 at the end of her college playing days might well have pursued coaching (she likely would have been good) but instead she got an executive track job with Nike paying I suspect a lot more money with a much easier life style than working as an assistant coach at a D2/D3/or low D1 school - Mel Thomas chose to start down the path of coaching for a few years at FLGC but got tempted into business after a few years for likely the same reason. It isn't that men and women don't now have similar options, its that women didn't have those similar options 30 years ago and being women, their academic resumes are probably a lot better than the male former athletes in the same possible pool of coaches.

 

[Trappa]

Bumping again: Diana could break the scoring record tonight!

 

[Trappa]

Well, it didn't happen last night. I hope the media attention and hoopla doesn't die down: she deserves it, the league deserves it, the game deserves it.

14 points away now. The Mercury play the Sparks in LA tomorrow on Sunday. It should come then. Maybe Dee was planning to make history in front of her parents all along.

 

[Trappa]

Just going to bump this again because Diana Taurasi will likely get the record today (14 points) unless Alana Beard shuts her down (which could happen, AB has been playing the game!) and thought some folks might want a little reminder to tune in.

Mercury vs. Sparks, 5:00 EST

The game will be available on NBA TV and WNBA League Pass.

Go Dee!