What was Diana Taurasi like as an Olympic rookie? Fierce, funny and ‘weirdly loud’

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In her sixth Olympics, Diana Taurasi is the veteran, even among Team USA veterans. At 42, she is the oldest member of the 12-person women’s basketball team, and in the history of the USA Basketball program, few have committed more than Taurasi.

She’s well-known on the Olympic and international stage, 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. Led by three-time Olympians Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes, that squad was an experienced one in pursuit of the program’s third consecutive Olympic gold medal.

So the question is: we know what Taurasi is like now, as a veterinarian, but what was she like during her first participation in the Olympics? The Athletics asked a few members of that team for their “Best Diana as a rookie” story from Athens. Their stories did not disappoint.

(Please note: Anecdotes have been lightly edited for clarity and length.)

From Chancellor, head coach of the 2004 Olympic team

My only concern was winning the gold medal. It wasn’t about the politics or what you’d done in the past. I just wanted the 12 best players that could help me win. When the time came, I said, “I want Diana Taurasi on the team. No question about it.” She was a senior at UConn. She had all the skills.

Team USA played a friendly game in Tulane the night before the 2004 national championship game. Sold out. We had all of our players except one last player. We all (from Team USA) went to the national championship game. So, UConn wins the national championship and the next morning, 9 or 10 o’clock, we were on our Team USA bus getting ready to go to the airport to fly to our training center in Colorado. Diana gets on the bus. I’m in the front seat and she sits down next to me and immediately says, “What do you want from me?”

I said, “Diana, you can help us, but there’s one thing I need. I have Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley. They’re veteran players. They’ve won two gold medals. I want you to act like a rookie.”

She said, “Coach Chancellor, if that’s all you need, then I’m ready to go. I’m ready to help this team.”

She had the best 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,'” U.S. head coach Van Chancellor recalled in 2004. “I’ve got Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley. … I need you to act like a rookie.” (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Dawn Staley, 2004 teammate

I always remember Diana being loud. Extremely loud. That was fine until it just became too much. At some point you just have to tell her to be quiet. I remember one time I told her, “Shut up.” We were rehearsing. I just had enough. I was done with it. I guess everyone was done with it too.

I don’t think she meant any harm. She was just who she was, but it was my third Olympics. So I knew what we had to do to bring home gold, and I didn’t want any unnecessary, unwanted distractions. I knew the secret of success, and she was this young, carefree, free Diana. And for us, we were just ourselves.

But it was cool, because she understood. There was no animosity. It was just, “Hey, this is what we have to do. Enough of the extra. Let’s just get lean.”

Swin Cash, teammate from 2004

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 leading up to the Olympics we always loved the white versus red exhibition games, when it was the young players against the veterans. We would kick their asses, and then when it was our time to win or we were about to win, Van Chancellor would always say, “Time’s up!” It was super competitive. I loved it.

But I remember when Dee (Taurasi) and Yolanda Griffith had moved to the red (veterans) team. Our team was still great, and I remember Dee was talking nonsense, like, “I gotta go back to the white team! F— this,” and she had this whole outburst. I literally had tears in my eyes. She was so competitive. She was so pissed when Van moved her to the red team. She was always talking nonsense. And when she got moved to the red team, it was like someone put her in a Tennessee jersey.

Sue Bird, teammate from 2004

It was the first competition at the Olympics. We were staying on the Queen Mary 2 ship. It wasn’t that far, but it was probably about 30 minutes to the venue. We got there and we all got ready, got taped up, put our shoes on. And Dee had brought two left shoes. She said, “F—, I have two left shoes.” And I said, “What are you going to do?” Someone had to run back to the hotel and get it for her, and she had it for the competition. But she did the team warm-up in her running shoes.

I also remember when we got our opening ceremony outfits. And that year, they were these skirts. They looked like school uniforms. And we had these hats, and Diana had two braids, which is so funny to look back on.

Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and Sue Bird celebrate their gold medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It was the first of Taurasi’s five Olympic gold medals. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Carol Callan, National Team Director for Team USA

Diana didn’t play much. She came on as a substitute. But she was so observant and competitive. But she took every opportunity to figure things out. She respected the amount of time the veterans had put in. She knew she couldn’t just step up and be a star. But I remember her always being supportive from the bench, and if a coach looked at her, she would jump up and sprint to the scorer’s table.

Gail Goestenkors, assistant coach of the 2004 Olympic team

Diana was a fierce competitor. We played against her when I was at Duke. Her competitive spirit was unbelievable. But what I loved about her — and she still is — is that she’s just so funny. In stressful situations, and the Olympics are stressful, she can say something that makes everyone laugh and relax.

I remember talking to her and Sue Bird before we went to a shooting practice and they were both saying that they weren’t very good at defense. I was joking about their defense. And then I asked Diana why she went to UConn. And Sue said, “Coach (Geno) Auriemma just said, ‘Let her have a great time. She needs to have a lot of fun.'”

Dee said, “I don’t remember most of it because we were having so much fun. That was the deciding factor because I was worried about what I was going to do in Connecticut.”

GO DEEPER

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(Top illustration by Diana Taurasi, Then and Now: Eamonn Dalton, John Bradford / The Athletics; photos: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images; Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)