Mohegan — The new scoreboard being put up in Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse was impressive, so much so that then-Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault asked Indiana Fever guard Katie Douglas about it during Game 2 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals.

“When did you get that scoreboard?,” Thibault asked Douglas, who he coached in Connecticut for five seasons.

“Well, we’re getting it up in time for the (WNBA) finals,” Douglas replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

Such is life around Douglas, whose razor-sharp wit is more lethal than her considerable shooting talents.

Douglas, who returned to play for Connecticut last season and became a mentor to a young team, announced her retirement due to chronic back issues at a Friday afternoon press conference at Mohegan Sun. She missed the final two games last season. She had lower lumbar microdiscectomy surgery in Oct. 2013 after missing all but four games that year while playing for Indiana.

“I was looking forward to returning for my 15th season in the WNBA,” Douglas said. “I was really excited to be that leader and come back and help build on what we were kind of building last year with the younger players that we had in place and kind of take off. … However, it’s become obvious that my back injury has not responded the way I wanted it to respond, and I did not want to come out this summer and just kind of be a shell of myself.

“(My surgeon) was using the term, ‘quality of life’ and risking that and threatening that if I continued to play … When those terms get thrown at you, it’s like, ‘Whoa, wait a second.’”

Douglas, 35, was one of the greatest players in Sun history and a catalyst on two Eastern Conference championship teams. She was a five-time All-Star and the first to earn WNBA first-team honors after her 2006 season. She’s fourth in WNBA history in career steals (623), fifth in made 3-pointers (727) and eighth in scoring (5,563).

Douglas averaged 13.3 points in 32 starts last season and was chosen by the coaches to be an Eastern Conference reserve in the All-Star game.

“As we sought to develop players and find a leader that kind of set the tone and teach (our younger players) how to win, Katie came in,” Sun coach Anne Donovan said. “It’s not an easy task. Katie logged the most minutes of any of our players, and at the height of her career overcame a back injury that many would never have been able to overcome.

“I was really glad that she was able to come full circle (and return to the Sun) because I know how much our fans appreciated Katie, and I was glad to have a chance to work with Katie, even if for just one summer.”

Sun general manager Chris Sienko told Douglas, “There’s a big void now with (you) leaving, but I’m very thankful that you came back.”

And suddenly, the Sun locker room has become less fun.

“We were on this (ride) from Albuquerque (New Mexico) the day after playing Sacramento (in a 2006 preseason game),” longtime Sun media relations manager Bill Tavares said. “A man named Speedy was our bus driver and tour guide. She kept yelling out (from the back), ‘Speedy! Where are we? Speedy, what’s that?’ in her Midwestern twang. ‘Speedy, I can’t hear you,’ because he was talking (to the team) on the microphone. … She was the life of the party like that.

“Later, she came up to the front of the bus where I was sitting. We had a really complicated photo shoot coming up that would require 30 minutes with players, and I was struggling with it. She had me explain it to her, and then she said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.’ As much as she was the life of the party, she was very empathetic and a leader. She didn’t have to do that. That’s my job, not hers, but she knew I was struggling with it. It went off without a hitch."

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED