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In her sixth Olympic Games, Diana Taurasi is the vet even among Team USA vets. At 42, she will be the oldest member of the 12-player women’s basketball team, and in the history of USA Basketball’s program, few have committed more than Taurasi.
She is well known on the Olympic and international stages, but that wasn’t always the case. In 2004, shortly after the Phoenix Mercury made her the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, Taurasi arrived in Colorado ahead of the Athens Games as the youngest member of Team USA’s Olympic team. Headlined by three-time Olympians Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes, that squad was an experienced team in the hunt for the program’s third consecutive Olympic gold medal.
So, it raises the question: We know what Taurasi is like now, as the vet, but what was she like in her first Olympic appearance? The Athletic asked some members of that team for their “Best Diana as a rookie” story from Athens. Their stories did not disappoint.
(Note: Anecdotes have been lightly edited for clarity and length.)
Van Chancellor, 2004 Olympic team head coach
My whole concern was winning the gold medal. I wasn’t about the politics or what you had done in the past. I just wanted the 12 best players who could help me win. When the time came, I said: “I want Diana Taurasi on the team. No-brainer.” She was still a senior at UConn. She had all the skills.
Team USA played a friendly at Tulane the night before the 2004 national championship game. Sold-out crowd. We had all our players except one final player. All of us (from Team USA) then went to the national championship game. So, UConn wins the national championship, and the next morning, 9 or 10 a.m., we were on our Team USA bus getting ready to go to the airport to fly to our training center in Colorado. Diana gets up on the bus. I’m sitting in the front seat, and she sits down right by me and immediately says, “What do you need out of me?”
I said: “Diana, you can help us, but there’s one thing I need. I’ve got Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley. They’re veteran players. They’ve won two gold medals. I need for you to act like a rookie.”
She said: “Coach Chancellor, if that’s all you need, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to help this team.”
She had the greatest personality with older players of anyone I’ve ever been around. She was a great player, but she acted like a rookie, and she fit right into our team.
“I said, ‘Diana … there’s one thing I need,’” 2004 U.S. head coach Van Chancellor recalled. “I’ve got Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley. … I need for you to act like a rookie.” (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Dawn Staley, 2004 teammate
I always remember Diana being loud. Off-the-wall loud. It was a good thing until it was just too much. At some point, you just have to tell her to be quiet. I remember telling her “shut the F up” one time. We were in practice. I just pretty much had enough. I was done. Probably everyone else was done with it, too.
I don’t think she meant any harm by it. It was just the way she was, but it was my third Olympics. So I knew what we needed to do to bring home gold, and I didn’t want any unwarranted, unwanted distractions. I knew the secret of success, and she was this young, happy-go-lucky, free Diana. And for us, we were just being us.
But it was cool, though, because she understood. There wasn’t any animosity. It was just, “Hey, this is what we’ve got to do. Enough of the extra. Let’s just get lean.”
Swin Cash, 2004 teammate
That Olympics, you had our group that was young: me, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Diana, Ruth Riley. We were the young wave coming in, and in the lead-up to the Olympics, we always loved the white versus red scrimmages, when it was the young players against the experienced vets. We would be kicking their a—, and then when it was our time to win or we were about to win, Van Chancellor would always say, “Time is up!” It was super competitive. I loved it.
But I remember Dee (Taurasi) and Yolanda Griffith had gotten switched up to the red (veteran) team. Our team was still killing it, and I remember Dee talking s—, like, “I need to get back to the white team! F— this,” and having this whole outburst. I was literally in tears. She was that competitive. She was so pissed when Van moved her to the red team. She was always talking crap. And when she got switched to the red team, it was like someone had put her in a Tennessee jersey.
Sue Bird, 2004 teammate
It was the first game at the Olympics. We were staying on the Queen Mary 2 ship. It wasn’t crazy far, but it was probably 30 minutes or so to the venue. We get there, and we’re all getting ready, getting taped, getting our shoes on. And Dee brought two left shoes. She’s like, “F—, I have two left shoes.” And I was like, “What are you going to do?” Somebody had to run back to the hotel to get it for her, and she had it for the game. But she did the team warmups in her runners.
I also remember getting our opening ceremonies outfits. And that year, they were these skirts. They looked like school uniforms. And we had these hats, and Diana wore two braids, which is so funny looking back.
Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and Sue Bird celebrate with their gold medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. It was the first of Taurasi’s five Olympic golds. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
Carol Callan, Team USA national team director
Diana didn’t play much. She would come in as a sub. But she was so observant and competitive. But she used every opportunity to figure things out. She respected the amount of time the vets had put in. She knew she couldn’t walk on and be a star. But I remember her always being supportive from the bench, and if a coach looked down to her, she hopped up and sprinted to the scorer’s table.
Gail Goestenkors, 2004 Olympic team assistant coach
Diana was a fierce competitor. We played against her when I was at Duke. Her competitive spirit was incredible. But what I loved about her — and she’s still this way — is that she’s just so funny. In stressful situations, which in the Olympics, there’s a lot of stress involved, she’s going to be able to say something that will make everyone laugh and relax.
I remember one conversation with her and Sue Bird before we were shooting around before a practice and telling both of them that they didn’t play very good defense. I was making jokes about their defense. And then I remember asking Diana about what made her go to UConn. And Sue said: “Coach (Geno) Auriemma just said, ‘Show her a great time. She’s gotta have a lot of fun.’”
Dee said: “I don’t remember most of it because we had so much fun. That sealed the deal because I was worried about what I was going to do in Connecticut.”
GO DEEPER
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(Top illustration of Diana Taurasi, then and now: Eamonn Dalton, John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images; Mark Dadswell / Getty Images)
