Q&A: Diana Taurasi weighs in on who can upset UConn, Azzi Fudd’s draft stock, WNBA CBA + GREENIES collab

It’s no shock that former UConn Husky, Diana Taurasi, is a canine lover, so teaming up with GREENIES to assist pet mother and father add dental protection to their canine’s every day playbook was a no brainer for the UConn legend. According to the three-time WNBA and NCAA champion, pets are what folks love probably the most in life and collaborating with GREENIES on its “Be Your Dog’s Mouthguard” marketing campaign was an effective way to get March Madness began.

Taurasi sat down with NBC Sports and shared her ideas on numerous sizzling matters in ladies’s basketball, together with the NCAA Tournament and who the largest threats are to UConn repeating, Azzi Fudd’s potential to go No. 1 in the WNBA Draft, life after basketball, the WNBA’s new transformational CBA and the following era of Team USA.

Diana Taurasi’s interview with NBC Sports was evenly edited for size and readability.

Why did you resolve to collaborate with GREENIES and the way does somebody benefit from making the pledge to Be Your Dog’s Mouthguard?

Diana Taurasi: Well, it occurred very organically. When I used to be approached to associate with GREENIES, I assumed what do folks love probably the most in life? Their faculty crew and their pets. And when [University of] Connecticut and GREENIES teamed as much as take [the] pledge to “Be Your Dog’s Mouthguard” it [was] a kind of issues the place like GREENIES has been in my home ceaselessly. It’s at all times been my pet’s primary deal with. It was only a nice partnership and so they’ve been wonderful. And you realize to get March Madness began, what higher approach than with GREENIES?

So, if somebody takes the pledge [to Be Your Dog’s Mouthguard] after which, both UConn males or ladies’s wins the nationwide championship, then they’ll get a free bag of Greenies Dental Treats?

Diana Taurasi: That is right. If you’re crew Connecticut, which is all our crew, I imply, you guys are in Connecticut, so that you guys are fellow Huskies. If we win, you get a free bag of GREENIES. So, take your pledge to Be Your Dog’s Mouthguard and get your self some GREENIES.

In mild of that, who is the largest menace to UConn ladies’s basketball to possibly stop them from repeating this 12 months?

Diana Taurasi: Yeah I imply, look Connecticut appears to be like nice. They’ve been taking part in nice all 12 months. Just the best way Sarah [Strong] and Azzi [Fudd] have actually carried this crew and so they’re simply taking part in at a degree that if you concentrate on it, coming off the championship win final 12 months with Paige [Bueckers] and what an unimaginable 12 months they’d, the observe up has been much more spectacular than that.

You know while you discuss those who can simply upset Connecticut, I imply, you discuss South Carolina and what Dawn’s been capable of do with that crew. And the sweetness about South Carolina is that they’ve gotten higher each month. And you realize that’s what you need when the season’s so lengthy. You need to come into March taking part in your greatest basketball. And I feel that’s what they’re doing. I’m actually impressed with UCLA and the way balanced they’re. And I feel the final couple of years when you have got such an imposing determine like Lauren Betts, all the pieces goes via her defensively and offensively. And I feel this 12 months they discovered a little bit bit higher steadiness which makes them a menace to win the nationwide championship.

Were you stunned that [UConn] dominated in the best way that they did going undefeated this 12 months?

Diana Taurasi: I need to say I’m, however I’m not. Knowing that it was going to be Azzi’s final 12 months as a senior, you at all times need to deliver your greatest foot ahead. And I feel with all of the issues that she’s gone via along with her accidents and the best way she performed final 12 months in the Final Four, she was unimaginable. I feel there was a way that I had and that individuals across the program [had] understanding that she was gonna have the perfect 12 months of her profession. And then, you have got Sarah who was most likely the perfect participant in the Final Four final 12 months. To come again her sophomore 12 months with one other 12 months of expertise having coach’s belief, having extra duty on the courtroom, you sort of can see this dominant crew being shaped. And you realize on the finish of the day you begin to present as much as the video games and it’s a must to respect your opponent and it’s a must to play at a really very excessive degree. You know, that’s what they do each night time and that’s what makes them so laborious to beat.

When you concentrate on final 12 months’s squad and this 12 months’s squad, who do you suppose has the sting?

Diana Taurasi: Oh, I imply, it’s robust. You know, that crew final 12 months went via rather a lot and typically while you see an undefeated season, you suppose, oh, that crew may be the perfect to ever play. But typically these groups with losses, you realize, they’re hardened a unique approach. Obviously, a crew with Paige is gonna at all times be higher than a crew with out Paige. So, you realize, they nonetheless have a job to complete. So, we’ll get again to you.

Do you suppose this 12 months’s undefeated crew might beat your undefeated crew that received the title in 2002?

Diana Taurasi: I imply, 2002 is the perfect crew to ever play. So, you realize, I don’t know. That’s not coming from me. That’s the consultants. The consultants are saying that, not me.

Should Azzi be the No. 1 general choose in the Draft?

Diana Taurasi: Dallas is gonna have a troublesome choice to make and it’s a choice you need when you have got the No. 1 choose and you’ve got all this expertise popping out. I feel simply from a hen’s eye view you’d say Azzi is the No. 1 choose. And you realize the synergy that she has with Paige on the courtroom, they play nice collectively. I feel, you realize, while you get to the WNBA in case you have two guards that can just about do all the pieces, defend, cross, shoot the three, get to the paint, then we’re speaking about constructing championship DNA.

And you realize, it wouldn’t be honest to have this dialog with out Olivia Miles. I feel what she does on the courtroom is fairly particular and distinctive [in] so some ways. Whenever somebody can cross the ball like she does and rating the basketball like she does, it simply adjustments your franchise mechanically. Obviously, these two are the entrance runners, however the best way Azzi has been taking part in and the way dominant she appears to be like on the courtroom on each ends proper now, I’d say she’s most likely the [No. 1] choose.

Have you had any conversations along with her round simply what that would imply?

Diana Taurasi: Yeah, I feel it doesn’t matter what, whether or not you’re favored to be the No. 1 choose or not, you’re at all times nervous. There’s a lot that occurs in that two week stretch from, hopefully profitable a nationwide championship or making the Final Four, to hastily you’re a professional and also you’re on the Draft. So a lot occurs in that stretch. But the sweetness about Azzi, she has nice folks round her. She has nice assist. She has nice pals that’s gone via the Draft and she or he’s received it discovered.

How has retirement been treating you?

Diana Taurasi: You know, it’s been great. Obviously, I’ve gotten to do some unimaginable issues with some unimaginable pals, however probably the most fascinating and fulfilling factor is simply spending time with my household each single day.

You know, while you’re taking part in, you’re simply so enthralled in the sport. You know the final 5 or 6 years of my profession, I used to be simply so obsessive about being on the courtroom and ensuring I used to be able to play each single sport that I misplaced sight a little bit little bit of what was round me. And it was so good simply to get again to the little issues in life. You know, having espresso in the morning, breakfast with the children, taking them to high school, selecting them up, taking them to swim, basketball, golf, tennis, they’re as busy as anybody.

All the issues that while you’re taking part in, you simply don’t even suppose they’re a part of your schedule since you’re so targeted on the following sport, the following follow, the following particular person. I’ve to be in the load room, I’ve to recuperate. So, it’s been candy. I’ve received to take action many nice issues off the courtroom.

Are there moments the place possibly you sort of miss taking part in a little bit bit? Are there occasions the place you suppose, you realize, I nonetheless received it?

Diana Taurasi: Oh, I miss that paycheck. I don’t miss the rest. You know, I feel typically retired gamers which have a tough time with giving the sport up is as a result of they’re so connected to the issues that the sport gave them off the courtroom. I used to be by no means actually that anxious about any of that stuff. I used to be simply actually at all times anxious about my crew and being on the courtroom. And you realize, when that thrill was gone, I actually don’t miss something about it. I liked it a lot. I gave all the pieces. I gave each ounce I had bodily and mentally. So, when it was time to step away, it sort of was like, yeah, that is what’s subsequent in my life.

Another paycheck is gonna be coming very quickly as a result of beneath the phrases of the brand new CBA, as a retiree, now they’ve received a stipend in there particularly for retired gamers. So, what are your ideas on the brand new CBA?

Diana Taurasi: Well, thanks for the paycheck, CBA. You’re gonna put [Isla Taurasi-Taylor] via faculty. You at all times need to go away the sport higher. And the CBA information from this week, I imply while you discuss in regards to the league being right here for 30 years and you realize we discuss in regards to the previous rather a lot and you realize it’s appreciation for all of the those who paved the best way, proper? We at all times discuss unpaid pioneers and what they did for this league and the issues we’ve been combating for for therefore so lengthy. And to see the league go ahead like that in a approach the place it’s gonna change folks’s lives, you realize our era needed to go to Europe, Russia and abroad. And that’s a sacrifice we made. And I wouldn’t commerce it for the world. But to see what this subsequent era has completed in such quick time simply says rather a lot about the place this league goes and what these gamers are doing. It’s been actually fascinating to observe. And you realize, we’re all pulling in the identical path. And that feels good.

Did you ever envision such a transformational CBA between the gamers and the league coming to fruition?

Diana Taurasi: You know, it was coming. It simply took rather a lot longer than we thought. Like something with change, there’s lots of people that resist it, that don’t prefer it. And we fought a whole lot of that. Whether it was via folks not supporting ladies’s sports activities, whether or not it was the media not giving us the respect and you realize, a whole lot of occasions, all we wished was for folks to know that that is our lives, that is our profession. You know, we’re doing this not as a result of we’ve a pastime. This is the factor we like to do probably the most and we’re prepared to sacrifice our our bodies and our lives for it. And to see the CBA go ahead, it’s actually candy for lots of people. And Isla will get to go to school now.

You discuss in regards to the new era, what’s it like watching the evolution of Team USA, [which] is sort of a altering of the guard in a approach?

Diana Taurasi: Oh yeah, I imply this crew that’s gonna go to Germany for the World Cup, it’s gonna push this subsequent era of USA Basketball ahead. And it’s been such a wealthy tradition of nice ladies that love the sport of basketball that put all the pieces on the road for it. And to see Paige and Caitlin [Clark] and Angel [Reese] and even [Kahleah Copper] and Jackie Young, Stewie (Breanna Stewart) and A’ja [Wilson] are gonna be the vets now. And they’re going to push that crew ahead going into LA for 2028.

Kara Lawson, being the brand new coach, there’s simply all these faces that you simply grew up taking part in with or towards and to see them in these positions the place USA Basketball is in actually good palms for a very long time.