Tamika Catchings is no stranger to making WNBA history. Catchings – who is already the WNBA’s all-time leader in steals and free throws made – has steadily worked her way up the all-time leaderboard in numerous statistical categories throughout her illustrious career. On Tuesday evening, she reached another plateau.
Catchings moved into second place on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list, passing Diana Taurasi. Her 15-point performance puts her at 6735 points for her career (and counting).
The Indiana Fever forward recently became the league’s third-leading rebounder of all-time when she pulled down 11 rebounds on July 15. Those two accomplishments alone are incredible and worthy of laud, but there’s even more history behind Catchings’ performance this season.
She was a WNBA All-Star this season, marking the tenth time in her career that she’s been voted to play in the WNBA All-Star Game. That’s the most in WNBA history. Even more remarkable is that she’s been a starter on every single occasion.
Congratulations @Catchin24! pic.twitter.com/GHWc14w9qR
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 28, 2015
“It’s definitely a blessing to be able to play for this long and to be successful,” Catchings said over the weekend, “not to just be playing and gradually seeing your game getting worse, but gradually seeing it getting better. It’s an honor for me to be able to just play. And I love what I’m doing and I feel passionate about the game and every single year just helping my teammates become better as a team.”
ESPN and Playstation recently recognized Catchings as the individual recipient of the first-ever Sports Humanitarian of the Year award for her work teaching youth the importance of embracing their differences. The award granted Catchings a $75,000 check for her charity Catch the Stars Foundation.
When it’s all said and done, Catchings will go down in WNBA history as one of the best to ever play the game. Look no further than her list of accolades.
- In 2002, she took home WNBA Rookie of the Year honors
- She’s the two-time winner of the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award
- She was named the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2011
- She’s won the Defensive Player of the Year award more times than any player in league history (5)
- She’s made the All-WNBA team six times
- The Fever won a WNBA championship in 2012 and she was named the WNBA Finals MVP of that series
- She’s first in the WNBA in all-time playoff points and rebounds
And the list goes on.
From three Olympic gold medals to being named to the WNBA All-Decade team, when Catchings hangs up her sneakers at the end of next season, she’ll go down as an all-time legend.
But for now, she’s not done making history.