Sue Bird Explains What Sets Diana Taurasi Apart From Other Legends in WNBA 'GOAT' Debate

Taurasi will go down in history as one of the greatest to ever do it.

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi on Aug 8, 2021. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

WNBA legend and all-time great Diana Taurasi announced her retirement from basketball in an exclusive TIME interview published Tuesday, and among the piece's many great quotes is one from Sue Bird, wherein the fellow WNBA heavyweight explains what sets Taurasi—quite possibly the greatest player the WNBA has ever seen—apart from other icons.

“There are players that have full games,” Bird told the outlet. “You can talk about Maya Moore in this conversation, Candace Parker, Lisa Leslie. You could talk about all these great names. The difference is the way she makes her teammates feel. The way she raises the level of her teams. That, to me, is the separator.”

She adds that "Dee" was the one who "had street cred," the one who people recognized in airports and different cities. Such a "cool quotient," as TIME describes it, was formative to building intrigue around the WNBA in its earliest stages.

So while Taurasi now joins a cast of contemporaries with resumes that rival or at the very least stand up to hers, she has an edge in one specific way: the aura she brought to a team.

And when we're recounting her accomplishments—an 11-time All-Star, 10-time first team All-WNBA, six-time Olympic gold-medalist, three-time WNBA title winner, and league leader in all-time points scored, among others if you can believe it—we'll be adding that to the list, too.

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