Take A Second: An Appreciation Of Diana Taurasi's Ongoing Miracle.

We're just over a month from the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game. It seems crazy how fast the season is hurtling by, how many shifting narratives and brilliant performances we've already witnessed. And once again, as she has since her Rookie Of The Year 2004 season, Diana Taurasi is out here wrecking shop. And you know what? I want to stop and take a second and really, truly appreciate the magnitude of that fact. DT turned 36 on the 11th of this month. She tallied her 8,000th career WNBA point six days earlier. That the excellence behind that jaw-dropping number is still on peak display every night at her age is miraculous. She is, herself, a miracle.

Taurasi has logged a combined 636 professional games in The W and overseas. That stupefying total leaves out her UCONN career and her four runs to Olympic Gold Medals. I tried to screenshot her Wiki page's list of career awards and honors to include here and discovered it actually wouldn't fit in one frame without shrinking it to the point of illegibility. A check of her WNBA bio page showed that Wiki list WASN'T EVEN COMPLETE. She's won everything there is to win. Taken home every award and broken most every record.

 And after all of that sweat and grind and transcendent accomplishment, perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Taurasi is still absolutely killing it every time she steps on the court. She's averaging 31.4 minutes a game this year, which ties her with Chelsea Gary and presumptive ROY A'ja Wilson for 10th highest in the league. Her usage rate of 27.8% is good for 6th. (5th if you remove the statistical anomaly of Imani Wright's 50% in1 minute of 1 game.) She's averaging 20.2 points and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 42% from the floor, 37% from deep, and 97% from the stripe. That amounts to 54.4% EFG and 62.3% TS. Again, she's 36 years old and has played almost year round for her entire professional basketball life. The fact that her legs haven't fallen off is incredible, never mind being this consistently brilliant this far into a career.

The primary weapon that defines that brilliance is her jumper; a compact, graceful marvel of mechanical perfection. This seems absurd to type, but I think we take it, and her, for granted sometimes. She's been raining buckets on so many collective heads for so long that we're a little immunized to the hypnotic beauty of that perfectly calibrated release. That silky shot has been defying and destroying all comers for 18 years if you go back to her freshman season at UCONN. When she came into the league, she took on her peers and the elder stateswomen of the game and smoked all of them. Then she held the crown against the next generation when they came at her, and then the next NEXT generation. We can debate it, and there are arguments to be made for Swoopes and Catch and Bird and a handful of others, but right now DT is the consensus GOAT. She's still out here ballin' at an elite level and as we all know, ball don't lie.

Maya Moore has a lot of career left and could be coming for that crown. Stewie could be coming for it. A'ja Wilson is already close to a top-10 player in the W and she's 14 games into her career, for crying out loud. But if you had to bet your life on one shot at the end of a game, you'd still want Taurasi taking it.

The Mercury are 6-3 in conference, 10-4 overall, and have the 2nd best record in the league. If they keep rolling like this, there's no reason to think they couldn't be playing in the Finals. And Diana Taurasi, the GOAT/Goddess propelling this team and facing players nearly half her age on a nightly basis, could put a fourth ring on her hand. She may be entering the end stages of her career, but she remains automatic.

Every player in the league is possessed of incredible talent and indefatigable work ethic. Greatness is achieved when someone amplifies that talent and drive by consistency and longevity. That jumper is still money. That jumper will be true and beautiful as long as she wants to keep lacing 'em up.

There are so many wonderful players in this game right now. It's as vibrant and electrifying as it's ever been. But the fact that DT probably won't be around too much longer is sort of wrecking me, and I had to get down in writing how important and special her season feels, obvious as it seems when we're talking about the GOAT. I wrote it up top but I need to say it again: Diana Taurasi is a miracle. Time is still undefeated against all athletes and against all of the rest of us, but she's going to keep draining jumpers right in Time's face until she can't, and that's special and we are lucky to witness it.

Take a second to live this joyful, amazing WNBA year watching this joyful, amazing woman who is still and improbably at the peak of her powers. Miracles don't come around that often, after all.