Diana Taurasi cannot wait to play Caitlin Clark in the WNBA on June 30. She wants to humble the greatest scorer in college basketball history on her home floor.
It is being dubbed as “the GOAT vs. the Rook” and it is going to be one of the most highly-anticipated regular season games in league history.
Taurasi is a 10-time WNBA All-Star, three-time WNBA champion and five-time scoring champions. Many (if not most) fans would consider her to be the greatest of all-time.
And then there’s Clark, who carries the biggest name in women’s basketball right now.
The former recently issued a bold warning to the latter. Taurasi told Clark that “reality is coming” in regard to her rookie season in the NBA. Naturally, that sparked a lot of chatter online.
A lot of people twisted Taurasi’s comments in a way that she did not mean and interpreted them as outward disrespect. Others found them to be fair, but arrogant. Those who have followed the WNBA since she was drafted first overall in 2004 knows that this is just Taurasi being Taurasi. Her brash attitude is sometimes to a fault. Especially now that she is 41.
However, it is a great sign that the WNBA is thriving to have old heads talking about young players in the same way that retired NBAers talk about new faces. And it’s not like this is a new thing!
Taurasi was dead serious about her warning to Clark. An old clip from 2020 makes that explicitly clear.
She and Sue Bird were talking about how they want to “f—— kill” rookies when they enter the league.
“Every time you played rookies, you just wanted to fucking kill them.” – Diana Taurasi pic.twitter.com/rqNgI8FjdN
— Matt Ellentuck (@mellentuck) May 4, 2020
It has long been known that WNBA veterans want to squash rookies. That should not come as a surprise.
Diana Taurasi wants to give Caitlin Clark a big dose of “welcome to the league” when they play on the last day of June. Will Clark be able to punch back at Taurasi? The Phoenix Mercury are already pushing single game tickets for those who want to find out, even BEFORE the WNBA Draft!