2021 WNBA Finals – Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi hopeful to keep playing at least through 2022 season

CHICAGO — Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi said Saturday that she plans to at least finish her current contract, which runs through the 2022 season. But she will wait until after the 2021 WNBA Finals are over and see how she feels during this offseason before making a decision on whether to retire.

“I hopefully can fulfill my obligation. But you never know,” Taurasi told ESPN as the Mercury prepare for Sunday’s Game 4 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App) at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. “The offseason is really long in the WNBA. With not playing overseas, it makes that eight months really, really long: to stay game-ready physically and mentally.”

Taurasi and wife Penny Taylor, a former Mercury player, had their second child on Oct. 9, as daughter Isla joined 3-year-old son Leo. Taurasi is finishing her 17th season in the WNBA. She will turn 40 next June.

“It’s something I’ll talk about with Penny and my family and really just do a little soul-searching to see if it’s something I want to continue to do,” Taurasi said of playing next season. “I’ll take my time. When the season’s over, I’ll disappear like I usually do in the offseason and go back and see what we do.”

Taurasi and the Mercury trail the Chicago Sky 2-1 in their best-of-five series. Phoenix lost 86-50 in Friday, the largest defeat in WNBA Finals history.

Taurasi, who was limited to 16 regular-season games while dealing with sternum, ankle and foot injuries, has won at every level, from NCAA championships at UConn to a fifth Olympic gold medal in August. Asked the last time she played in a championship game or series and didn’t win, Taurasi said it was probably her senior year in high school in California.

What keeps her coming back?

“It sounds very simple, but I still love to play,” Taurasi…