Diana Taurasi gets adrenaline hit in her push for Paris 2024: "You put the jersey on for the next person"

As Diana Taurasi steps off the court to take a break during USA women’s basketball team camp in Atlanta, she finds herself standing between the sport’s past and future.

On one side is Seimone Augustus, her teammate on three Olympic teams. On the other is Aliyah Boston, the WNBA Rookie of the Year, participating in the senior women’s camp for the first time. Taurasi, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, is the bridge between these eras of USA women's basketball.

The company she’s playing with has changed drastically from when Taurasi started her Olympic run in 2004. Dawn Staley, her teammate at Athens 2004, was her coach at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Augustus won gold with Taurasi at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016. Now, Augustus is on the committee selecting the 2024 team for USA Basketball. Even Sue Bird, who won five golds alongside Taurasi, has retired.

“In a lot of ways, it's my first Olympics too, because it's my first time around a lot of these young guns. And I've had such a great time really getting to know [Kahleah] Copper, getting to know Sabrina [Ionescu], Kelsey Plum,” Taurasi said.

“It's these relationships. You play against them and you really don't know them, on a personal level, because my generation, we've kind of left.”

If Taurasi does make the national squad headed to Paris 2024, where the U.S. is looking to win its seventh consecutive gold, she will be 42 years old when the Olympics start. If she can win gold with Team USA, she will become the most-decorated team athlete of all time.

Getting these accolades, however, doesn't matter as much to her as continuing the legacy of US women in basketball.

“Every time I come to one of these camps, it gives me this hit of energy and adrenaline that we have so much to represent. USA Basketball is such an amazing culture of history and partnership, and teammates and all these relationships that you build throughout your whole career,” Taurasi said. “You put the jersey on for the next person, and people have done that for me and hopefully I'm doing it for the next generation.”

• Diana Taurasi: Things to know about the USA basketball star
• Diana Taurasi becomes first WNBA player to score 10,000 points

Taurasi just finished her 19th season with the Phoenix Mercury. She has three championship titles, leads the league in all-time points scored, and became the first WNBA player to pass the 10,000 point mark.

After making history time and time again, the thing that keeps pushing Taurasi to play basketball is that she still has that drive to win.

“I’m a competitive [person]. I'm still very competitive at what I do. I still love to compete," she said. "I still love to get ready every single day. In my iPhone, I have a little countdown to Paris and if all the things line up, hopefully I get an opportunity to go represent my country. And that's what I'll do."

While Taurasi laughed off the idea of trying 3x3 basketball to have the chance to double up on her medal total, she said she loves how 3x3 brings the sport to its roots.

“I started loving basketball playing three-on-three. It was called Hoop It Up," the five-time Olympian said. "It was in Huntington Beach every summer and I played every single summer for the first eight years of my playing career. I love three-on-three so much: the blacktop, outside. There's this one-on-one competitive thing. But three on three is really hard. It's a young person game. It is physical. It is quick, it is fast, and I really enjoyed watching."

If we see Taurasi in a Team USA uniform in Paris, it will be for the five-on-five version of the game. To her, it’s not about adding to her medals or even breaking records. She’s done all that.

“The medals are cool, but the memories are better. Without a doubt,” Taurasi said.