Phoenix Mercury legend Diana Taurasi honors immigrant parents

Legendary women’s basketball star Diana Taurasi, the so-called White Mamba, honored her immigrant parents – Mario and Liliana Taurasi – as the Phoenix Mercury retired her No. 3 and put her in the WNBA team’s Ring of Honor.

The Mercury placed Taurasi’s No. 3 on the rafters Sunday night at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Ariz. Diana Taurasi was born in California to a father from Italy and a mother from Argentina. Mario and Liliana Taurasi moved to California from Argentina in the 1970s.

“I know this story resonates,” she told the crowd while looking at her parents. “And it can resonate in so many different ways. When your parents do everything for you, everything. My parents did everything for my sister and I. 

“They moved countries. They came somewhere where they didn’t know the language.”

There are three trophies because there was Diana Taurasi. pic.twitter.com/fHrtbT2JIB

— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) August 17, 2026

To emphasize her point, Diana Taurasi interrupted her tribute to her parents by asking her dad if he would like to speak “a little English” to address the crowd. 

Mario smiled and waved off the invitation. 

“No, ‘I don’t want no English,’” Diana Taurasi said in a bit of a Spanish accent. “He said ‘hola’ everybody.”

More from Our Esquina

Diana Taurasi, Mijaín Lopez leave historic mark at Paris Games

Argentina legend Lionel Messi breaks World Cup goal record

Diana Taurasi was more than GOAT; she was the GLOAT

Diana Taurasi, a six-time Olympic gold medal winner, is considered by many the greatest women’s basketball player of all time. Some would even argue that she’s the greatest Latina athlete in history, regardless of sport.

Before winning three WNBA titles, she won three NCAA National Championships at UConn. She was a two-time NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and two-time Naismith Award winner. 

Diana Taurasi won her first Olympic gold medal with Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Then she added gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris. 

Along the way, she proudly embraced her Latino roots.

“Don’t tell me that this country is not built on hardworking people, from no matter where you’re born.”

– the GOAT, Diana Taurasi 🙌 pic.twitter.com/2afQyH0jeh

— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) August 17, 2026

“My parents showed me, they taught me what it meant to show up every single day for your family,” she said. “I remember my dad would get in the car at 4 a.m., drive to his metal-sheetwork factory an hour and a half away. And he would leave that early to miss traffic.

“Then he would sleep in the parking lot. And he did that every single day for 50 years. Over and over and over. So don’t tell me that this country is not built on hardworking people from no matter where you’re born.”