Women pt 6~Sports

So far we have had educators, entertainers, writers, and inventors, and supermodels. They are definitely slices of life ...... so here we go with adding what some would consider the most important.

Kobe called her " The White Mamba" and she is considered one of the greatest female basketball players of all time.

Diana Lorena Taurasi plays for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. She won the rookie of the Year Award in 2004, three championships in 2007, 2009, and 2014, rd in 2009, two Finals MVP Awards 2009 and 2014, a historic five Olympic gold medals in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, five scoring titles 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 as well as the three FIBA World Cups 2010, 2014, and 2018. In 2011, she was voted by fans as one of the Top 15 Players of All Time and later in 2021, she was selected by fans as the league's greatest player of all time. Diana was named by the league to its 20th and 25th anniversary teams, respectively the Top 20@20 in 2016 and The W25 in 2021. On June 18, 2017, Taurasi became the all-time leading scorer and on June 27, 2021, becoming the first player to surpass 9000 points.

Born on June 11, 1982, Taurasi grew up in Chino, California, with her parents, Mario and Liliana, and her older sister, Jessika. She attended and played basketball at Don Antonio Lugo High School where she was the recipient of the 2000 Cheryl Miller Award. She was also named the 2000 Naismith and Parade Magazine National High School Player of the Year, and the 1999 and 2000 Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year. Taurasi finished her prep career ranked fourth in state history with 3,047 points. Taurasi was named a WBCA All-American and participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored twelve points, and earned MVP honors.

Following her high school career, she enrolled at the University of Connecticut and began playing for the women's basketball team during the 2000–2001 season receiving many personal accolades at UConn including the 2003 and 2004 Naismith College Player of the Year awards, the 2003 Wade Trophy, the 2003 and 2004 Honda Sports Award and the 2003 Associated Press Player of the Year award. During her time at UConn, her team compiled a record of 139 wins and 8 losses where she would average about 15.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.

During her WNBA debut, Taurasi scored 22 points in a 72–66 loss to the Sacramento Monarchs. For the season, she averaged 17.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Although mercury did not qualify for the playoffs, Diana was named to the Western Conference All Star team. In 2005, Taurasi averaged 16.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while battling an ankle injury becoming an All Star for the second straight year while mercury again missed the playoffs. In 2006, Taurasi was a member of the inaugural class of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball "Huskies of Honor" recognition program.

Former NBA coach Paul Westhead became the Mercury's head coach prior to the 2006 season and brought his up-tempo style to Phoenix. 2006 would be an historic season for her as she flourished under Westhead's system, leading the league in scoring and earning a third straight trip to the All Star Game, breaking Katie Smith's league records for points in a season (741 during the 2006 season). She averaged a record 25.3 points, 4.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game, including a career-high 47 points in a triple overtime regular season victory against the Houston Comets.

During that game she made a record 8 three-pointers (which has since been tied by Riquna Williams). Taurasi also set a WNBA record with 121 three-pointers made in a single season. The Mercury finished 18–16, but yet again missed the playoffs. In 2007, she would finally reach the playoffs eliminating the Seattle Storm, the San Antonio Silver Stars and the Detroit Shock leading the team to their first WNBA title. With this victory Taurasi became the seventh player ever to win an NCAA title and a WNBA title.

In the 2009 season, she was named the MVP and leading the team to its second championship in three years by beating the Indiana Fever, three games to two, with her being named the Finals MVP. Taurasi is one of only two players (the other being Cynthia Cooper-Dyke), to win the season scoring title, the season MVP award, a Championship and the finals MVP in the same season.

In 2011, alongside being selected to her 7th All-WNBA First Team,she was voted one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA by fans. Diana played only eight games due to medical issues in the 2012 season but returned healthy for the 2013 season, playing 32 games and averaged 20+ ppg for the sixth time in her career. The Mercury finished 3rd in the western conference. Defeating the L.A . Sparks 2–1 in the first round, but losing to the Minnesota Lynx in a 2-game sweep.

Entering the 2014 season, she reached the number two spot in career points per game, fifth place in career points, and ninth in career assists, with a supporting cast of all-star power forward Candice Dupree , rising star Brittney Griner and the arrival of new head coach Sandy Brondello, with the Phoenix Mercury finishing 29–5, setting the record for most wins in a regular season, and earning the top seed in the western conference. In the playoffs they advanced all the way to the Finals where they would sweep the Chicago Sky earning Taurasi her 3rd championship and Finals MVP for the second time in her career.

On February 3, 2015, Taurasi announced that she would be sitting out that season but would return for the 2016 season where she made her 113th playoff career three-pointer becoming an all-time WNBA leader. During the semi-finals for that season she scored a game-high 30 points but would lose the finals. After dating her former teammate Penny Taylor for eight years, they finally married in 2017. She told People Magazine in an interview “It was the most amazing and beautiful day of our lives. To be able to share our love with family and close friends meant the world to us.”

In May of 2017, she signed a multi-year contract extension with the Mercury. On June 18,she became the WNBA's all-time leading scorer. Diana would be selected into the 2017 All-Star Game, making it her eighth career all-star game appearance. In 2018, she and her spouse would become first time parents to a son. She would also become the first player in history to make 1,000 3-pointers as well as the first player to score 8,000 points in a game. On July 8,she became the league's all-time leader in field goals. Earning her ninth career all-star appearance after being voted into the 2018 All-Star Game.

Diana started the 2019 WNBA season on the injured list after undergoing back surgery then continued to be hobbled throughout the season, this time with a hamstring injury which limited her to only 6 games played for the season with very minimal playing time. In September 2019, Diana confirmed that she intended to play for the team in 2020 but the season was delayed and shortened to 22 games due to the pandemic which Diana . would play 19 of the 22 games.

In February 2021, Taurasi re-signed with the Mercury on a 2-year deal before injuring her ankle and breaking a bone in her foot late in the Mercury's 2021 season and opted to sit out due to the injury in the first single elimination game against the New York Liberty. At 39 years old, she has made history as the oldest player in league history to score an over 30 point game.

Currently, Diana is now a parent of two children and still playing for the Phoenix Mercury.

Ora Washington was the first prominent athlete to dominate two sports, tennis and basketball.

Born on January 23, 1898, in Caroline County, Virginia, she was the fifth of nine children born to James “Tommy” and Laura O. Young-Washington. In 1912, her family would later move Un to the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Washington began playing organized sports competitively when she was 25 years old. She chose to play tennis at the Germantown YWCA, at the suggestion of an instructor who was trying to console her after one of her sisters passed away. Washington won her first national tournament in 1925, and her first national championship within a year of picking up the racket. Unfortunately, competitive tennis was racially segregated so she could only compete against other African Americans in the ATA. The American Tennis Association (ATA) was founded in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 1916 making it the oldest black sports organization in the United States by a group of businessmen, college professors, and physicians in response to the USTA ban on black players in their tournaments.

In her first five years, Washington won numerous titles, and she held the ATA national title from 1929 to 1936. Washington continued to play up until the late 1940s, where she added 12 doubles titles, winning her last doubles title at 46 years old, and three mixed doubles championships to her already impressive trophy case. Her achievements were noticed by President Franklin Roosevelt who steered New Deal funds toward the building of tennis courts in urban areas.

While most athletes would be satisfied with dominating one sport, Washington added basketball to her athletic resume. She was the starting center for the Germantown Hornets, where she helped the team post a 22-1 record and win the female national title in 1930. She joined the Philadelphia Tribunes in 1932, then one of the most dominant women’s sports teams in basketball history and remained with them for ten years. The Tribunes were sponsored by the city’s oldest black newspaper, the Philadelphia Tribune. Although the Tribunes opponents were mostly black teams, occasionally they were matched against white teams. Washington led the Tribunes in scoring, and had a brief stint as the head coach. While she was with the team they won ten straight Women’s Colored Basketball World Championships. At one point, Washington was called “the best Colored player in the world.”

Washington had a 12 year period where she was undefeated in tennis and she earned 201 trophies for both tennis and basketball. During her entire playing career, Washington was forced to work as a domestic to support herself unlike today where star athletes are paid high salaries. After retiring from major competitions in 1948, she purchased an apartment complex which helped her live comfortably as she got older.

According to one of her nephews, Ora died on May 28, 1971, at the age of 73 from health issues in Philadelphia. Five years later she was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1976.She was also inducted into Temple University’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, and in 2009 she was elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee.