The WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) is an American professional basketball league. There are presently twelve teams in the league. The league began to play in 1997 after being created on April 22, 1996, as the women's equivalent to the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season runs from May to September, with the All-Star game taking place in July (except in Olympic years) and the WNBA Finals taking place at the end of September and into early October. The WNBA has proven to be an important part of the American sports scene since its beginning, and it has produced some of the best women's basketball players in the world.
The WNBA has also had her own dynasties and has produced Naismith Hall of Fame players. But who is the greatest of the best among all those great players–among all the MVPs and All-Stars? This discussion has been raging among WNBA fans all season, with a broad range of credible and passionately held viewpoints.
10. Candace Parker
Candace Parker is a Chicago Sky professional basketball player. The Los Angeles Sparks picked her as the first overall choice in the 2008 WNBA Draft. She is the first and only player in WNBA history to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season. Candace Parker won two WNBA MVP honors in her first six seasons, but it took her until 2016 to win her first WNBA championship. Parker led the WNBA in rebounding in her first two seasons, 2008 and 2009, and received her first WNBA Defensive Player of the Year title in 2020.
9. Sue Bird
Sue Bird is perhaps the finest point guard in the history of women's basketball. She is the all-time assists leader in the WNBA and has won four WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm over three decades. All four of Seattle's titles have been won with her as the starting point guard. Bird is the only WNBA player to have won titles in three distinct decades as of 2021.
8. Sylvia Fowles
Sylvia Fowles is a three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and one of the most outstanding defensive players in WNBA history. Fowles spent her first seven seasons with the Chicago Sky before demanding a trade to the Minnesota Lynx in 2015, where she has won two WNBA championships and was awarded WNBA MVP in 2017. Fowles passed Rebekkah Brunson to become the WNBA's career rebound leader in 2020.
7. Lauren Jackson
Lauren Jackson is one of the most influential players in the WNBA's history. From 2003 through 2010, she was unstoppable, winning two championships, three MVP awards, seven first-team All-WNBA selections, two first-team all-defensive accolades, and the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
6. Cynthia Cooper
She's one of the best scorers in league history, and she introduced the WNBA to the high-level pick-and-roll. She played for the Houston Comets from 1997 to 2000, winning the Most Valuable Player of the WNBA Finals in each of those four seasons, and then returned to play in 2003. With four Finals MVPs, Cooper-Dyke still retains the record for most Finals MVPs.
5. Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie is one of the most well-known and well-liked female basketball players in history. Leslie was a dominant post player with the Los Angeles Sparks for her entire 13-year WNBA career, and she is one of just three players in league history to earn the WNBA MVP three times. Leslie earned her first of four Olympic gold medals as a member of the Dream Team at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Leslie and the Sparks ended Houston's four-year winning streak in 2001, the first of back-to-back championships for the Sparks.
4. Maya Moore
Moore joined the league as the No. 1 selection in 2011, with unimaginable expectations. She had surpassed all of them by the eighth season. Moore would go on to become the WNBA's face. Moore has four WNBA titles, a WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2014), a WNBA Finals MVP Award (2013), three WNBA All-Star Game MVPs, two Olympic gold medals, a WNBA Scoring Title, and the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award to her credit.
3. Tamika Catchings
Tamika Catchings is a legitimate contender for the title of greatest WNBA player of all time. She was a member of the Indiana Fever for all 15 seasons of her career, winning WNBA MVP in 2011 and WNBA Finals MVP in 2012 as she led the franchise to its lone title. From 2012 to 2016, Catchings was the President of the WNBA Players Association. In 2020, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
2. Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl was the first WNBA player to be signed. She is a three-time WNBA MVP and was selected one of the top 15 players in the league's history during the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game. Sheryl Swoopes' popularity boosted the WNBA in its early years, relying on her notoriety as the winner of an NCAA title at Texas Tech in 1993 and as the captain of Team USA at the 1996 Olympics. Swoopes is one of just three players in WNBA history to earn league MVP three times, having led the Houston Comets to four straight WNBA titles in the league's first four seasons.
1. Diana Taurasi
Diana is a WNBA basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury in the United States. Phoenix selected her first overall in the WNBA draught in 2004. Taurasi has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2004), three WNBA championships (2007, 2009, and 2014), one WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2009), two WNBA Finals MVP Awards (2009 and 2014), an unprecedented five Olympic gold medals, five scoring titles, and three FIBA World Cups.
