When legends retire – Taru Tuukkanen

How to define a legend?

If Taru Tuukkanen defines the definition of ‘legend’ in Finnish basketball, it will be a very long time before anyone else can reach this status.

Career that starts before most of the players who play today, were even born!

She finally decided to call it a day, at the end of last season – in Game 05 of the Naisten Korisliiga Finals.

When it’s so much more than game

When legends retire, it is so much more than just a player leaving the game (on the court!).

Part of the game leaves with them.

When Taru Tuukkanen retired, at least my thoughts were not so much on the Peli-Karhut celebrating their Finnish league title.

My thoughts were on the last 15 years of so, that I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet Taru and shoot her playing around Europe and Finland.

The photos tell the story

There is no way for words to tell the last moments of the game – so I let my photos from the game do the talking.

Surely in years to come, there will be documentaries, series and interviews with Taru about her career, and hopefully this is just a start of another chapter for Tuukkanen and basketball!

With 46.7 seconds to go in the deciding Final – Taru Tuukkanen stepped of the court for the last time as a basketball player in Naisten Korisliiga… #EndOfAnEra