She’s the GOAT! Vegan basketballer tops all-time rankings

Sometimes vegan athletes establish themselves at the highest level, sometimes, they lead the pack. Diana Taurasi is considered the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in women’s basketball. This claim was supported by the experts recently.

30 October 2021

Sports channel ESPN recruited a panel of experts to name the 25 best players of all time to mark the league’s 25 year history. The players were ranked with Diana coming in at number 1. She’s the top scorer in the history of the league with 9174 points – recently becoming the first to break 9000. She’s won five scoring titles.

Diana played in three championship-winning teams and was named Most Valuable Player twice in the finals and once in the league.

Outside the league, Diana has also won five Olympic gold medals and three world championship gold medals playing for Team USA.

Durable vegan

ESPN writer Katie Barnes said Taurasi’s career longevity lifted her above other star players.

“Taurasi hasn’t won the most championships, and she hasn’t won the most MVPs” she says. “But it is her consistent offensive greatness and her longevity that set her apart from her peers. Others have been “better” over specific stretches or had stronger concentrations of dominance, but what makes Taurasi special is that she has been one of the top performers for a long time.”

A key part of this has been eating vegan for the last nine years – performing at her best at a stage when other players might be thinking of retiring.

“You take for granted what you put in your body when you’re young. You feel like you can do anything,” she says in an interview. “As you get older, you get conscious of what you’re eating and how that affects your body. The way you look and feel that’s really helped me.”

“I have been vegan for about three years now and I think it is something I have really benefitted from” she told Women’s Fitness in 2015. “Just staying away from foods that cause a lot of inflammation, fats and sugars that everyone knows are obviously a little counterproductive if you eat large amounts of them. So, I have stayed more on a plant-based diet and it has really benefitted me.”

Diana’s recent top ranking

Diana’s profile

See more vegan basketball players

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