They are three of the best women's basketball players of all time. They have won multiple gold medals in the Olympics and helped grow the league. One of them is turning 40 on Saturday.
Sylvia Fowles and Sue Bird have redefined statistical categories. Their dominance is most obvious at the top of three of the game's biggest statistics: Taurasi is the all-time scoring leader, Fowles is the all-time rebound leader and Bird is the all-time assists leader.
Longevity has played a part in their path to the top, but they have excelled over the years. Bird and Fowles will both be 42 in October, the same month.
The greatest player in the history of women's basketball is Taurasi. The GOAT was voted by fans last year as the WNBA celebrated its 25th season. She has a quick and easy-looking release no matter where she is shooting. She believes that she should be the one to take the shot, no matter what.
You have to accept that she will miss some of the game-winning shots that have been her specialty. The three-time champion has never shied away from that responsibility.
She has done her job. A five-time league scoring champion, the only player in league history to score at least 600 points in six consecutive seasons, and the only player to record 800 points in a season multiple times. In addition to the records for made field goals, 3-point field goals, scoring average and points in a season, Taurasi also holds the record for most points in a season.
In her 377th career game, Tina Thompson became the league's leading scorer with 7,486 points.
It's a record that won't be duplicated. In 15 different seasons of her career, Taurasi has averaged at least 15 points per game. Twice this season she has scored at least 30 points, making her the oldest player in the league.
The player with the most points in a regular season is Taurasi. The difference between Taurasi and runner-up Thompson is more than the difference between Thompson and Angel McCoughtry.
There is only one question left, and that is if Taurasi can get to 10,000 points.
She needs 42 regular-season games to get to 10,000 career points if she hits her average every game. It would take 33 regular-season games for Taurasi to reach 10,000 points.
The regular season has been expanded to 36 games. If she stays healthy and doesn't miss any games, she could top 10,000 career points next season.
The next closest active player on the scoring charts is Candice Dupree, who has not played a game in over a decade. Tina Charles has 6,749. The top five are rounded out by the third- and fourth-place players.
She's the only player in the league with a double-double this season and she's the only one who says this is her final season.
She has never been just about her size or strength, she has also been a great rebounder. She plays like a center who won't give up her space on the low block. She always embraces contact and almost always wins the battle, which is why you'll never see her drift away from it.
The defense is a big part of the game. 2,743 have come on the defensive side of the board. It's important to remember that she has shot a WNBA-record 59.8% from the field for her career. She eliminates so many second-chance points for her opponents with her accuracy and dominance on the glass.
Whether she has had to be an anchor on her own or with another strong post player, Sylvia has been a consistent rebounder. As ferocious a rebounder as the NBA has ever seen, Rebekkah Brunson and Sylvia Fowles were as ferocious a pair as the WNBA has ever seen. On July 28, 2020, in the second game of the bubble season in Florida, Fowles' 3,358th career rebound moved her past Brunson for the NBA career record.
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Even though she plays a physical style, she has largely avoided injury. A calf injury limited Fowles to seven games in 2020 but that was the first time she had missed since joining the Lynx.
The team announced on Thursday that Fowles is out indefinitely with a knee injury. Through 12 games, she's leading the league in several categories, including rebound rate, field goal percentage, and steals.
For her fifth season, Fowles is on pace to average at least 15 points and 10 rebound and shoot at least 60% from the field. Artis Gilmore is the only other player in NBA or WNBA history to have at least one such season in a single season. She was the second pick in the 2008 draft.
Bird has a high level of decisiveness which is important if you are the floor general. A few other things set apart the four-time WNBA champion as one of the greatest point guards of all time.
Bird doesn't just know what she's doing, she feels it. She also understands the changes that come when you're in the flow of the game and that is something that she knows.
Bird has established an all-time assist mark that is hard to top. Bird currently has 3,100 assists, and the next active player is the Chicago Sky'sCourtney Vandersloot, who has 2,254 assists. The number 5 is checked in by Taurasi.
If Bird maintains her current pace for the rest of the season, she will have her 15th season in the league with at least 6.0 APG. Penicheiro has nine such seasons.
The NBA's Steve Nash and Mark Jackson are the fifth-most such seasons in NBA or WNBA history. Chris Paul has more than all of the others.
Bird has said that she made a few mistakes along the way of managing her teammates. The Bird strength is the fundamental skill of directing others to be their best.
Leadership is one of her most valuable qualities. Bird takes time to understand her teammates and people, but she never shows up on the court. She is able to get her point across and her teammates to follow her example. Bird has been a leader on every team she has been on, from the U.S. national team to the Storm.
Bird passed Penicheiro for the all-time assist record with her 2,600th assist. In career regular-season starts, she holds the record. Bird hasn't come off the bench in her career.
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