PHOENIX -- Tangela Smith has squeezed 18 basketball seasons in seven countries into the past nine years. If anybody has a global view of the women's game, it's the Phoenix Mercury center. Despite her multi-continent-encompassing mental database, the 10-year WNBA veteran didn't hesitate when identifying the best player on the planet.
She didn't even wait for the end of the question to anoint Chino native Diana Taurasi. "She's the best in the world," said Smith of the fourth-year Mercury guard. "She's the best I've ever seen.
Aside from the statistics - Taurasi broke the WNBA single-season and single-game scoring records last season - and precedent-setting versatility - the 6-footer can play fourpositions - visibility may be the most significant component of the Taurasi phenomenon. After scoring 56 points her second game as a Don Lugo High freshman, it was three NCAA titles from 2002-04 at the University of Connecticut that thrust her into the national consciousness. The magnetic personality to which the country was exposed might be the answer to the WNBA's four-year trend of declining attendance.
Moments after culminating Friday morning's shootaround by playfully provoking a teammate to hurl a ball at her feet, a beaming Taurasi bounced into a room overlooking a practice court at U.S. Despite playing year-round since 2005, spending WNBA offseasons braving the Russian winter in the country's Super League, which pays an estimated 10 times her $49,000 WNBA annual salary, fatigue is furthest from what the vibrant 25-year-old projects.
It's apparent in Taurasi's fluid response she is aware of her prominence in the world's-greatest-player debate. No eyebrows are raised, no bashful smile, just a hint of modesty in the glance towards her shoes, the latest sneakers in her signature line. "It's always a great compliment," she said.
"Luckily I've played at such a high level for so long. I've competed against the best and that's the only way you can tell." Taurasi lights up a room, whether or not a basketball hoop is present - although, Mercury coach Paul Westhead claims she's in range as soon as she steps in the door.
It's her infectious attitude the WNBA is hoping will breathe life into the 11-year-old league, whose clubs lose an estimated $1.5 million to $2 million a year, according to USA Today. 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft seems the obvious reason the Mercury are overwhelmingly the league's largest road draw, averaging 21percent more fans than the rest of the WNBA.
"Certainly she does have a charisma that not only helps her, it helps women in sports," Mercury general manager Ann Drysdale said. "UConn and ESPN, they're drawn to that, too." That charisma is perhaps best relayed through her on-court ambition.
The team captain is endlessly doling out high-fives, calling huddles and whispering in opponent's ears. Taurasi's fiery nature even earned her a two-game suspension when she chased down an official after her final-possession charging foul cost Phoenix the game against the league-leading Detroit Shock on June 22. I've never seen a player get the type of attention she does," said Smith, a center in her first year with Phoenix.
"But when she steps on the court she's all business." Taurasi's 25.3 points per game last season broke the WNBA record, as did her 47 in a triple-overtime win at Houston on Aug.
Her versatility has reached such lengths even she and her coach can't agree on her position, Taurasi claiming small forward, Westhead said shooting guard. Her first twoWNBA seasons, it was point guard. Some attribute Taurasi's scoring surge to the up-tempo system employed last season by Westhead, whose 1980Lakers won the NBA title and 1989-90 Loyola Marymount team averaged a NCAA Division I record 122.
4 points per game. The coach has a different theory. "Against Minnesota (Tuesday) they scored on us, we outletted the ball to (Taurasi), she drove the lane, spun around, beat somebody and laid it in and the shot clock said 20 seconds.
If you shoot the ball that quickly it's going to help your scoring average, but what she did in those four seconds a lot of other players wouldn't have been able to do if everybody else fell down." Making her scoring prowess all the more impressive, by all accounts Taurasi is a pass-first player. She finished fifth in the WNBA in assists (4.
1) last season while shattering scoring records. Of course, drawing two and three defenders nightly lends itself to distributing the ball. "That started in sixth grade: box-and-one's, triangle-and- two's, double teams," Taurasi said.
It continued her four years at Don Lugo, during which the 2000 Parade Magazine national player of the year's team never advanced past the quarterfinals. But opponents paid dearly at Connecticut. Curiously, the Mercury have yet to make the playoffs since Taurasi's arrival.
Her offensive production is down from her-record setting numbers last season. Taurasi is averaging 18.0 points - more in line with her career average - this season, but second-year guard Cappie Pondexter and Australian Penny Taylor, now a full-time WNBA player, have adequately flanked the leagues' marquee player, leading Phoenix to an 11-7 mark, a game behind Sacramento for first place in the Western Conference.
Three-and-a-half years into her professional career, Taurasi rates herself a six, maybe a seven, when it comes to realizing her full potential. In other words, if she isn't spinning the globe on her finger tips already, she will be. PHOENIX -- Tangela Smith has squeezed 18 basketball seasons in seven countries into the past nine years.
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