WNBA is a professional basketball league in the US that was founded in 1996. It is comprised of twelve teams who play in the months of May to September. The players on these teams are highly skilled and competitive.
The women of the WNBA are top athletes that have mastered the various skills needed to play basketball. They are at the peak of their profession. So, with so many great players, it can be difficult to determine the best of the best.
Further, in 2020, the WNBA will be celebrating 24 years so there have been countless outstanding players in the WNBA. However, we are still going to try to pick those that really stand out. In this review, we feature the top 10 best WNBA players of our time.
Candace Parker
We cannot talk about the top 10 best WNBA players of our time without mentioning Candace Parker. She was the first female player to dunk twice in any game, and this established her as a household name.
Parker was drafted in 2008, and in the same year, was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year, along with the Most Valuable Player of the Year. She was also able to clinch the WNBA Player of the Year award in 2013.
Parker is a versatile player who has led the US National basketball team and won gold medals in 2008 and 2012. She was also named the NCAA player of the year in 2007 as well as 2008.
Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi’s name is synonymous with the WNBA, and she has also been nicknamed “The White Mamba.” Her nickname came due to her knack for scoring during crucial situations and she is the WNBA’s all-time lead scorer. This is a feat she has been able to achieve with more than 7,000 points.
Her fans were able to recognize her talents and voted her as one of the top 10 best players of our time in 2011. She won an Olympic gold medal and has also won numerous awards.
Maya Moore
Maya Moore is another player who is extremely famous. She is in fact, the 10th highest female scorer of all time by career points. She was first drafted in 2011, and she subsequently took part in the finals that year and the next two years after that.
So far, she has already won two World Champion gold medals and two Olympic gold medals. Her other achievements include winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year award in 2011, the WNBA Most Valued Player, and she has won four WNBA championships and two WNBA all-star games. She also went on to win the Spanish League and the Euro leagues in 2012.
Lauren Jackson
Lauren Jackson definitely deserves a place in the top 10 best WNBA players of our time because she is the only player who was born outside the US and went on to win the WNBA Most Valued Player award. This is not an easy feat.
She joined the WNBA in 2001, and she has won the Most Valued Player award three times. Jackson is from Australia, and she is actually from a basketball family; her parents also played on the national basketball team.
Tamika Catchings
Tamika Catchings is a player who has to be in the top 10 best WNBA players of our time because she holds the record of the first-ever quintuple double.
She made her quintuple-double history in 1997, and this is the same year she won the Rookie of the Year award. In addition, she has also won the WNBA MVP and she won four Olympic gold medals, and five WNBA Defensive Player of the Year awards. She is one of only 9 women who have ever achieved this. Her father was also a basketball player.
Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie is the first woman to win the MVP award, the playoff MVP award, and the All-star MVP game, all in the same year. Wow!
She was part of the WNBA’s first-ever inaugural team after she was drafted in 1997. Leslie was also the first player to ever dunk. She won the Olympic gold medal four times, and she also won the WNBA all-time lead scorer.
She has played on the WNBA team eight times and has been in the championship team twice. Fans voted her as one of the top 10 Best WNBA players of our time in 2011. After an incredible career, she retired from the WNBA in 2009.
Sue Bird
Sue Bird made history as the all-time assists record-breaker. She was drafted in 2002 and has since won an Olympic gold medal and several NCAA championship awards.
She also won the Euro League for Women Championship, the Russian Super League, and has been a part of the WNBA all-star team nine years in a row. In 2011, she was featured in the top 10 best WNBA players of our time.
Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Swoopes was the first-ever woman to be signed by the WNBA. She was also the first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her.
Swoopes was named the most valuable player for the NCAA in 1993, even before the WNBA was started. She is a three-time gold medal winner and was listed in 2011 as one of the top 10 best WNBA players of our time. Swoopes is considered the female “Michael Jordan,” of our time.
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper definitely deserves to be in the top 10 best WNBA players of our time because she was the first player to ever win the WNBA MVP award. She has also won this award four times consecutively in 1997, 1998, 1999, and the year 2000.
She also won an Olympic gold medal in 1988, and fans voted her as a top player in the WNBA history. She retired from professional basketball in 2004.
Conclusion
Looking at this list, it is clear why all of these women are on the list for the top 10 best WNBA players of our time. Not only have they achieved tremendous accolades in their professional careers, but they have also gone above and beyond to break records, and do what no one else has ever done in this field. For these reasons, we celebrate these incredible women, who have left a mark in history.
