Mercury's Diana Taurasi Becomes 1st Player in WNBA History to Score 10K Career Points

Diana Taurasi has hit another milestone in her already-Hall-of-Fame career.

The Phoenix Mercury star became the first player in WNBA history to surpass 10,000 career points when she dropped 42 on the Atlanta Dream in Thursday's 91-71 win.

"It was a cool night," she said after the game. "You couldn't have wrote this any better, for our fans and for our city."

Taurasi is the eighth player to score at least 40 points in a game this season. It's her highest-scoring game since putting up 44 points against the Seattle Storm on July 14, 2010.

The 10-time All-Star has been the WNBA's all-time leading scorer since June 18, 2017. Her 10,024 points after Thursday's game moved her 2,536 points ahead of second-place Tina Thompson (7,488).

For perspective, the gap between Taurasi and Thompson is about the same as the gap between Thompson and Maya Moore in 24th place (4,984 career points).

Even though she is the oldest player in the league this season, having turned 41 on June 11, Taurasi is showing no signs of slowing down. She's averaging her most points per game (17.4) since 2020 and ranks ninth in assists per game (4.9).

Taurasi's record-breaking performance also helped the Mercury end a four-game losing streak. The team's 91 points marked their third-highest single-game total of the season.