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Tamika Devonne Catchings (born July 21, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player who played her entire 15-year career for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Catchings has won a WNBA championship (2012), WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2011), WNBA Finals MVP Award (2012), five WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012), four Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016), the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2002), and an NCAA championship with the University of Tennessee Lady Vols (1998). She is one of only 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, a FIBA World Cup gold and a WNBA Championship. She has also been selected to ten WNBA All-Star teams, 12 All-WNBA teams, 12 All-Defensive teams and led the league in steals eight times. In 2011, Catchings was voted in by fans as one of the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time, and would be named to two more all-time WNBA teams, the WNBA Top 20@20 in 2016 and The W25 in 2021.
Catchings served as President of the WNBA Players Association from 2012 to 2016. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.
Early life and college career
Catchings was born in New Jersey. She lived in Italy for one year while her father Harvey Catchings played professional basketball for Segafredo Gorizia, during which time she befriended Kobe Bryant.[1] She played for both Adlai E. Stevenson High School and Duncanville High School, where she was named a WBCA All-American.[2] Catchings participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game where she scored twelve points.[3] She is also the first player at any level in history to be officially credited with scoring a quintuple-double (25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, 10 steals and 10 blocks).
Catchings was an All-American with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball for 1997–2001. She earned the Naismith College Player of the Year award, the AP Player of the Year award, the USBWA Women's National Player of the Year award, and the WBCA Player of the Year award in 2000. As a freshman on the undefeated 1997–98 National champions, she was part of the "Three Meeks" with Semeka Randall and Chamique Holdsclaw.
College statistics
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | Points | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Tennessee | 39 | 711 | .537 | .364 | .760 | 8.0 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 18.2 |
| 1999 | Tennessee | 34 | 563 | .513 | .279 | .775 | 7.3 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 16.6 |
| 2000 | Tennessee | 37 | 580 | .475 | .331 | .767 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 15.7 |
| 2001 | Tennessee | 17 | 259 | .477 | .343 | .806 | 8.8 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 15.2 |
| Career | 127 | 2,113 | .505 | .333 | .771 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 16.6 | |
Source[4]
WNBA career
Catchings was drafted 3rd overall by the Indiana Fever in 2001. Unable to play in the 2001 season due to an ACL injury sustained during her senior year at Tennessee, she had an outstanding year in 2002 and was named WNBA Rookie of the Year while averaging 18.6 ppg, immediately making an impact on the Fever roster in her first year as a pro. During her rookie season, in a regular season game against the Minnesota Lynx, Catchings had tied a then WNBA record, 9 steals (which has since been broken by Ticha Penicheiro). That year, the Fever made it to the playoffs and despite losing 2–1 in the first round, Catchings had a dominant series, averaging a playoff career-high 20.3 ppg.
Catchings's best season of her career would be in the 2003 season, where she averaged a career-high 19.7 ppg although the Fever never made it to the playoffs that year.
In 2005, Catchings scored her 2,000th point in the Women's National Basketball Association. With this she became the fourth fastest player to score 2000 career points in the WNBA, reaching the milestone in only four seasons of play. She is also the fastest to 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists, and 300 steals. In 2005, Catchings was also named the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. Catchings then repeated as Defensive Player of the Year in 2006. She was again named Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, 2010 and 2012.[5]
In 2006, Catchings was voted into the 2006 WNBA All-Star Game, and was also the leading vote-getter, but had to sit out because of a foot injury. At half-time she was announced as a member of the All-Decade Team along with nine other players and former Comets coach Van Chancellor. Five years later she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.[6]
Months before the 2008 season, the Fever traded for hometown all-star shooting guard Katie Douglas (who would play with the team until 2013) to pair up with Catchings, forming an all-star duo to compete for a championship and strengthen their lineup. However, the Fever fell way short of championship contention in 2008 as they were eliminated in the first round by the Detroit Shock during the playoffs.
In 2009, the Fever would have more postseason success, as the chemistry developed between Catchings and Douglas, the Fever would advance to the WNBA finals, making it Catchings's first finals appearance. Prior to this, Catchings led the league in steals with 2.9 spg and helped lead the Fever to a 22–12 record, earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference. In the finals they faced the Phoenix Mercury and had a 2–1 series lead but would lose the next two games to be defeated in the finals 3–2.
In 2011, Catchings won WNBA Most Valuable Player while averaging 15.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 3.5 apg and 2.0 spg also leading the Fever to a 21–13 record, topping the Eastern Conference standings. However, in the playoffs she performed poorly offensively averaging a playoff career low 10.0 ppg. The Fever would end up making it to the Eastern Conference finals where they got eliminated 2–1 to the Atlanta Dream. In game 2 of the series, Catchings suffered a right foot injury. Although she was able to play in game 3, she had a sub-par performance following the injury, playing only 10 minutes and was 0 for 4 from the field.[7]
In 2012, the Fever made a change in their starting line-up, with Douglas playing the small forward, Catchings at power forward and Shavonte Zellous at shooting guard during the regular season. The Fever finished second in the Eastern Conference with a 22–12 record. They made it back to finals that year, this time against the championship defending Minnesota Lynx, but they would defeat Minnesota 3–1 in the series becoming only the second Eastern Conference franchise to win a WNBA title, despite playing without Katie Douglas who suffered an ankle injury in the Conference finals. Catchings scored a game-high 25 points in the final game of the series and also won WNBA Finals MVP.[8]
In 2014, Catchings missed the Fever's first 17 games of the season with a sore back and returned 6 games prior to the 2014 WNBA All-Star Game in which she was selected to play in. During the all-star game, Catchings scored a game winning basket for the Eastern Conference all-star team to put them up 125–124 with 6 seconds left in overtime.[9] Later on in the season, the Fever finished second in the East with a 16–18 record. On August 23, 2014, Catchings became the WNBA's all-time leading playoff scorer after making a three-point field goal in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Washington Mystics surpassing Lisa Leslie's 908 career playoff points. She finished the game with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 steals also surpassing Lisa Leslie for most WNBA career playoff rebounds (471).[10] The Fever would then advance to the Conference Finals and were one win away from advancing to the 2014 WNBA Finals but lost 2–1 to the Chicago Sky.
In October 2014 in a TV interview, Catchings revealed that she will be retiring after the 2016 Summer Olympics. She said:
I will be retiring in 2016, Lord willing, if my body holds up. Although I plan to step away as a player that is not to say I'll step away from the game, hopefully. I am so thankful and blessed to have had an opportunity to play the game I have loved for so long. God has truly blessed me with an amazing playing career, and now it's time to start transitioning to what He has for me beyond the lines of the basketball floor.[11]
In the 2015 season, Catchings was voted as a WNBA All-Star for the 10th time in her career while averaging 13.1 ppg, passing Tina Thompson for most all-star appearances. With a new all-star sidekick Marissa Coleman joining her in the frontcourt, the Fever finished third in the Eastern Conference with a 20–14 record and made it back to the finals for the first time in three years for a rematch with the Minnesota Lynx, this time with Minnesota winning the series 3–2.
In the 2016 season, Catchings caught her 3,308th rebound in a regular season game loss to the Minnesota Lynx becoming the WNBA all-time leader in regular season rebounds also passing Lisa Leslie. Prior to becoming the WNBA all-time leading rebounder, Catchings had also become only the second player in WNBA history to have 7,000 points and 3,000 rebounds in the month of May.[12] Catchings's final WNBA game was on September 21, 2016, in a first round playoff game loss to the Phoenix Mercury, due to the WNBA's new playoff format that had just been in effect, where the first and second rounds contains only a single elimination game instead of the traditional best-of-3 series. Also teams get seeded based on overall league standings instead of conference standings with the top two seeded teams receiving double byes to the semifinals (the last round before the WNBA finals) as well as the third and fourth seeded teams receiving byes to the second round.[13][14] Catchings scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 30 minutes of play.
As of her retirement, Catchings ranked 1st all-time in career playoff scoring, 1st all-time in career playoff rebounds, 2nd in all-time regular season rebounds, 2nd in all-time career regular season scoring, 1st in total career steals and 1st in career steals per game average. She also holds another WNBA record for most consecutive playoff appearances of 12 straight seasons. Catchings had also appeared in 3 WNBA finals. She was also listed in the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the league's best 20 players ever in celebration of the WNBA's 20th season in 2016, and The W25, a similar list of 25 players announced during the league's 25th season in 2021.[15]
WNBA career statistics
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
| APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
| TO | Turnovers per game | FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| Bold | Career best | ° | League leader |
| † | Denotes seasons in which Catchings won a WNBA championship |
| ‡ | WNBA record |
Regular season
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Indiana | 32 | 32 | 36.5 | .419 | .394 | .815 | 8.6 | 3.7 | 2.9° | 1.3 | 2.6 | 18.6 |
| 2003 | 34 | 34 | 35.6° | .432 | .387 | .847 | 8.0 | 3.4 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 19.7 | |
| 2004 | 34 | 33 | 33.8 | .385 | .335 | .854 | 7.3 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 16.7 | |
| 2005 | 34 | 34 | 34.5 | .383 | .285 | .788 | 7.8 | 4.2 | 2.6° | 0.5 | 2.7 | 14.7 | |
| 2006 | 32 | 32 | 33.5 | .407 | .299 | .809 | 7.5 | 3.7 | 2.9° | 1.1 | 2.5 | 16.3 | |
| 2007 | 21 | 21 | 32.3 | .417 | .311 | .820 | 9.0 | 4.7 | 3.1° | 1.0 | 2.9 | 16.6 | |
| 2008 | 25 | 17 | 27.8 | .391 | .432 | .800 | 6.3 | 3.3 | 2.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 13.3 | |
| 2009 | 34 | 34 | 31.9 | .386 | .328 | .873 | 7.2 | 3.1 | 2.9° | 0.5 | 2.6 | 15.1 | |
| 2010 | 34 | 34 | 31.4 | .484 | .448 | .849 | 7.1 | 4.0 | 2.3° | 0.9 | 2.7 | 18.2 | |
| 2011 | 33 | 33 | 31.5 | .438 | .348 | .883 | 7.1 | 3.5 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 15.5 | |
| 2012† | 34 | 34 | 30.5 | .432 | .379 | .864 | 7.6 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 17.4 | |
| 2013 | 30 | 30 | 31.4 | .396 | .321 | .861 | 7.1 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 17.7 | |
| 2014 | 16 | 16 | 26.8 | .446 | .368 | .790 | 6.4 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 0.8 | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Tamika_Catchings