Diana Taurasi, 10,000 points and the top five games of her career - ESPN

Asked what keeps her going in basketball at age 41, Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi makes it sound almost involuntary.

«Obsession, addiction — all the things you try to stay away from,» Taurasi said. «All the things that keep pulling me back to the game of basketball. I've always said I've given my life to this game and I still love to play. I still love to prepare. I still love to compete. That's what keeps me coming back.»

That, and nights like Thursday in Phoenix, when — in the midst of another challenging season results-wise for the Mercury — Taurasi turned back the clock, or perhaps just made time stand still for a while.

She not only hit the 10,000 career points mark — an unprecedented WNBA feat — in front of her home fans at Footprint Center in Phoenix. She did it with a 42-point performance in a 91-71 victory, another masterpiece in an already-full portrait gallery for the 2004 No. 1 draft pick from UConn.

Taurasi has acknowledged she has days when she wonders why she's not at the beach with her children, instead of being out on a WNBA court facing some players young enough to be her kids.

But it all comes back to the most simple thing: true love, and how she's not ready to give it up yet.

«It's a lot of work, a lot of years, a lot of hours in the gym,» Taurasi said after Thursday's victory. «And the thing with basketball is I don't leave it at the gym. I take it home with me. I think about it all the time. I go to bed with it. Since I was a little kid, that's just what it was. I still feel the same way. I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning having to do something with basketball. Tonight kind of puts that all in perspective.»

In 19 WNBA seasons, now with 10,024 points scored and all with the Mercury, Taurasi