RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham interviewed WNBA legend Tamika Catchings for USA Sports to recognise her incredible career.
Cunningham has been a career-long role player in the WNBA, averaging 7.9 points over her eight-year career and now specialising as a bench shooter for the Indiana Fever.
Catchings is the greatest player in Fever history, retiring in 2016 after a 12-year career, leading the franchise to a WNBA title. Now, Cunningham is interviewing Catchings about her Hall of Fame career.
Sophie Cunningham kept it real with Tamika Catchings about them playing against each other
During the USA Sports interview, Cunningham hypes up the five-time DPOY Catchings and jokes about just throwing the ball away and getting benched if she came up against her on the court.
“Five-time DPOY. That’s insane. I would have just thrown the ball away like, ‘Here! Take it, and I will go sit on the bench.'”
Catchings is widely remembered as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, with nobody else coming close to the incredible defensive legacy of the forward.
Catchings won DPOY in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2012, while leading the league in steals for eight out of the 12 seasons she played in the WNBA.
She retired as the all-time leader in steals and playoff points, second in rebounds and points, and had her name on multiple all-time lists.
Cunningham has had an impressive WNBA career, but it doesn’t even come close to what Catchings achieved on the court over her career.
Sophie Cunningham entered the WNBA years after Tamika Catchings retired
Cunningham was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2019 WNBA Draft, while Catchings retired after the 2016 season at 37 years old.
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
The pair could never cross paths as competitive basketball players, but the WNBA has also rapidly evolved in the time since.
Catchings likely would still be as effective as a player, but Cunningham’s spacing ability would present a different sort of challenge.
Ultimately, a situation where a forward like Catchings would guard a role-playing swing player like Cunningham was unlikely. If Catchings played today, she would definitely be concerning herself with stopping either Caitlin Clark or Kelsey Mitchell.
She likely would have great success too, forcing Clark into committing more turnovers at an even higher rate, while contesting Mitchell’s unstoppable jump shot and making it harder for her to get her shot off or find lanes to the rim.
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