Diana Taurasi’s ‘Perfect’ Take on Saudi-Backed Women’s League Turns Heads
One of the biggest stories in all of sports over the past several years has been the aggressive emergence of Saudi Arabia in creating and funding professional sports leagues.
Whether it's through LIV Golf, Formula 1, horse racing, a baseball league, and a massive entry into the combat sports community (by both boxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)), the extremely wealthy sovereign state of Saudi Arabia is making a major push to become a global hub for several professional sports.
And women's basketball is no exception. "Project B" is a Saudi-backed women's basketball league scheduled to debut in 2026. It's a 5-on-5 league that will feature six, 11-player teams and will take place during the WNBA offseason (which means it would overlap with Unrivaled) across several continents, including North America.
Headlines were made when it came out that Maverick Carter, who is LeBron James' business partner, had an advisory role in Project B. But Carter has since backed out of the role. Still, there is a lot of intrigue about what this league might amount to, and whether it could eventually become a nuisance to (or even compete with) Unrivaled and the WNBA.
Diana Taurasi's Honest Stance on Project B Speaks Volumes
Given that basketball is a star-driven sport (as is every other sport), the only way that Project B could realistically compete with the WNBA is if its roster came close to matching up in terms of star power. An October 8 article from The Athletic revealed that Project B is already in talks with WNBA stars and has signed active WNBA players ahead of its inaugural season next year.
While women's basketball legend Diana Taurasi retired from the WNBA earlier this year, she's still one of the most recognizable names in the entire sport, and her participation (or association) in Project B would be a massive win for the new league.
This is why it was fascinating to see her comment when asked whether she would consider playing in Project B, which was conveyed in an October 21 article from the Associated Press (AP).
“It’s an interesting proposition., you know, I think,, the beauty of sports is having opportunities all over the world to play the sport you love,” Taurasi was quoted as saying. “And obviously, we have that with the WNBA. We have that with Unrivaled. We have that with Europe. The potential of having a league in, in Saudi Arabia seems unconventional.
"But at the same time seems like the perfect place in a lot of, in a lot of ways," she added.
Phoenix Mercury and WNBA legend Diana Taurasi is so focused on family time and retirement she didn't watch her former team on their 2025 Finals run.https://t.co/uhJ6MSaHuM
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) October 21, 2025
Project B has clearly caught Taurasi's attention, which suggests this is a story that's worth continuing to monitor in the coming months.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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