talking shit is how diana taurasi shows affection

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I have an op-ed up at CNN today about why women’s sports should have more shit talking, not less. I pitched this as “let women be haters” and I had a lot of fun recounting the best WNBA rivalries in recent memory, specifically Kahleah Copper vs. Sophie Cunningham (the shirts!) and the Sky trolling Diana Taurasi with the broken locker room door.

Sports are entertainment and it’s always more enjoyable when there’s conflict involved; after all, tension is what defines a good story. I don’t want to see less trash talking, I want to see more. I don’t want to see women pressured to be polite or likable, I want them to be allowed to be assholes. Let women athletes be haters — sports needs more of them.

Read the whole thing here.

Now let’s do a little sports astrology and then, since the women’s basketball news cycle is moving so quickly right now, we’ll do a few quick hits of commentary on the hottest stories of the past few days (and I’ll share a rejected pitch I sent back in 2020 next to the coverage of the WNBA draft from this week).

As I noted in my CNN piece, Taurasi is known for her mouth. It’s like the one thing fans know about Taurasi, aside from the fact that she has made a lot of great shots over the course of her career. There’s even a t-shirt of Taurasi infamously heckling a ref whose call she didn’t like.

via X

Seerat Sohi called her “a shit-eating grin motherfucker” on Twitter and that truly sums up Taurasi’s essence. And that, to me, is also the key point here: the grin.

Lindsay Gibbs

described talking trash as Taurasi’s “love language” and I have to agree. Take one look at her birth chart and you can see it pretty clearly.

Diana Taurasi is a Gemini sun and Mercury with a moon in Aquarius and her Mars in Libra. That chart is littered with air signs and there’s not much an air sign likes to do more than… blow hot air. Mercury rules communication and a Gemini Mercury loves to talk, to chat, to get under your skin. An Aquarius moon is going to love banter and is going to view roasting someone as a way of flirting or expressing affection—if they don’t care about someone or something, it’s not worth the effort of making jokes about. And then the Mars in Libra (with Mars being the planet ruling action, conflict, and sports) is going to be very concerned with justice and fairness and will also not shut up about any of it—especially with the rest of those air placements sitting around it.

All of that is to say: Taurasi talks trash because it is fun. It’s how she approaches the world, both from a competitive standpoint and from a relational standpoint. She roasts because she loves. She often does it with her tongue planted firmly in her cheek. She does it as a sign of respect, because she sees you as a worthy competitor. It is and always has been a key part of her game and her personality.

Moving on:

via X

You know who else is a Taurus? Dawn Staley. “I feel like all centers should be earth signs,” Marisa continued, noting that Cameron Brink is a Capricorn (I did more of the astrology of Brink and other March Madness stars here).

Haterade: march madness astrology edition

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Now some quick-hit commentary

• No, you don’t make more than Caitlin Clark