2025 has been quite the year for Paige Bueckers. After leading UConn to a national championship, she was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings and is currently the betting favorite to win Rookie of the Year, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. One of them is recently retired legend Diana Taurasi, whom Bueckers called “the GOAT” in her Instagram story on Saturday.
Paige Bueckers Names the Greatest Women’s Basketball Player of All Time originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
2025 has been quite the year for Paige Bueckers. After leading UConn to a national championship, she was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings and is currently the betting favorite to win Rookie of the Year, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
She’s quickly emerged as one of the faces of the WNBA and is playing a major role in the sport’s continued growth — a rise that has accelerated over the past several seasons.
But before Bueckers, or even the Caitlin Clarks of the world, there were icons who paved the way. One of them is recently retired legend Diana Taurasi, whom Bueckers called “the GOAT” in her Instagram story on Saturday.
Taurasi recently teamed up with Amazon Prime Video for a three-part docuseries titled Taurasi, which premiered Aug. 7 and has already caught Bueckers’ attention.
“The [GOAT]. You need to see this one. @dianataurasi,” Bueckers wrote.
Diana Taurasi is a three-time WNBA champion (2007, 2009, 2014), a six-time Olympic gold medalist, and the league’s all-time leading scorer with 10,646 points.
Throughout her career, she navigated an era in which women’s athletes were far less valued, forcing her — like many of her peers — to play year-round and spend offseasons competing overseas just to make a living.
While this remains a challenge for some in today’s WNBA, it was an even greater issue during the majority of Taurasi’s 20-year career, which spanned from 2004 to 2024, all with the Phoenix Mercury.
"I'm the best player in the world and I have to go to a communist country to get paid like a capitalist," Taurasi said in her new docuseries. "One time I came back and I was like, 'Man, my parents have just gotten older and I've missed a big part of it.' We weren't making that much money, so generational wealth was coming from going to Russia every year.
"Now we have to come back home and get paid nothing, to play in a harder league, in worse conditions, against the best competition in the world... The [explicit] janitor at the arena made more than me."
"I’m the best player in the world, and I have to go to a communist country to get paid like a capitalist… the f*cking janitor in the arena made more than me.”
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 6, 2025
Diana Taurasi, in a preview of her self-titled show on Prime video 🗣️
(via @SportsonPrime)pic.twitter.com/2Lvv8hYBAP
Now, WNBA players are increasingly demanding change, a message that was clear at the recent All-Star Game where they wore shirts reading “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” With the sport’s growth at an all-time high, rising stars like Paige Bueckers are poised to lead the charge for progress that didn’t fully materialize during Diana Taurasi’s era.
Related: Sue Bird Gushes Over 'Hard Launch' of Paige Bueckers Relationship
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Basketball
