Five-time Olympic gold medalist Diana Taurasi

The US Women’s Basketball Team heading to Paris for the 2024 Olympics was served with a reality check during the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend. The star-studded roster suffered a humiliating 117-109 loss to Team WNBA, who fielded two rookies and a sophomore. Diana Taurasi was unsurprisingly miffed about the loss and gave Team USA an earful after the embarrassing defeat.

After the final buzzer went off, Taurasi, who finished the game with 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists, summoned her teammates in a huddle and made it clear in no uncertain terms that they should be upset about the defeat. The 42-year-old said,

“This sh*t f*cking sucks. It’s a good reminder, we gotta come to play no matter who we are. We got it!”

After delivering a war cry to her teammates, Taurasi complimented Team WNBA. During the post-game press conference, she called Team WNBA the second-best roster in the world behind Team USA and attributed her team’s loss to a rare off night.

The 20-year veteran had predicted that the star-studded would be rusty and would need time to get on the same page before their campaign in Paris got underway. In an interview with USA Basketball earlier this week, she said,

“The Olympic summer is tricky to navigate. Everybody’s on their own WNBA team, trying to get better, trying to win a championship, trying to win games…And then all of a sudden, you have to switch gears and you’re all, you know, on this team and you have to find a way to work together cohesively in a short amount of time, and try to go and beat the world.”

Taurasi is disappointed about the loss but won’t let her team stress too much about it. She was on the Team USA roster that lost to Team WNBA during the 2021 All-Star Weekend ahead of their trip to Tokyo for the Olympics.

As embarrassing as the defeat was, it didn’t affect their performance in Japan in the slightest. They went 6-0 during the tournament and returned home with the gold medal. The 2024 roster will look to emulate their predecessors and continue Team USA’s reign of terror at the Olympics. 

They have won the gold medal in nine of the last 10 editions and haven’t failed to win the tournament since 1996. Taurasi, playing in her sixth and final Olympics, will look to ensure that Team USA returns home with gold for the eighth straight time.