Top 10: Who is the Best WNBA Player of All Time?
NBA fans love nothing more than to discuss the greatest players of all time. However, most sports fans would be hard pressed to even attempt to argue about who the best WNBA player of all time is.
We’re going to try to change that by introducing the candidate best WNBA players of all time, coming up with a metric to rank them, and determining who the WNBA GOAT is.
In addition to this, we’ll look at some current WNBA players to see if any current young players stand a chance at cracking the top 10. Let’s begin by introducing our candidates for the best WNBA player of all time.
To receive email updates when new articles are posted, use the subscription form below!
Best WNBA Player of All Time Candidates
By compiling a few different lists for the best WNBA player of all time, we have settled on 10 candidates who continuously show up near the top of everyone’s lists. Our candidates for making the top 10 WNBA players ever are:
- Maya Moore
- Diana Taurasi
- Tamika Catchings
- Lisa Leslie
- Sue Bird
- Cynthia Cooper
- Sheryl Swoopes
- Candace Parker
- Sylvia Fowles
- Lauren Jackson
Nearly every list has these ten players in their lists of top 10 all-time WNBA players. In fact, nearly every other list we’ve looked at has Diana Taurasi as the greatest WNBA player ever. But is her WNBA GOAT ranking warranted? Or is her top spot more due to emotional arguments and gut feelings? At The Data Jocks, we love to put numbers on intangibles. In the next section we’ll introduce a metric to fairly measure who the best WNBA player of all time is.
Our GOAT Metric
I’m not the first person to try to come up with metrics to settle the greatest player in X sport debate. For analysts who are also huge fans of the sport, coming up with metrics is half the fun.
To me, there are three things that should be considered when determining the relative quality of players:
- How good the player was at their peak
- The players’ longevity/how long they were good for
- How many times they won championships or were recognized as the MVP
Most of the disagreements when discussing best players come down to putting different weights on each of these different categories. For example, analysts who argue for Michael Jordan or Bill Russell as the GOAT often cite their massive number of championships. On the other hand, those who argue for LeBron often cite his peak dominance and unparalleled (and ongoing at the time of writing this article) longevity.
Our metric is a mixture of these three factors. For each of our 10 candidates, we computed three numbers:
- Their career win shares divided by 93.66 (the most win shares by a player in the WNBA of all time)
- The win shares of their top 2 seasons divided by 19.4 (the highest 2-year peak in win shares in WNBA history)
- Their “glory score” – this is the sum of their championships and MVPs.
- Players with more than 5 (MVPS+championships) had their stats adjusted up by 10%
- Players with fewer than 4 (MVPS+championships) had their stats adjusted down by 10%.
We ranked the best WNBA player of all time by adding up their career win shares, their win shares at the peak of their career, and multiplying by the glory score adjustment. The results of our analysis are below.
The Greatest WNBA Player Ever Is…
Buckle up.
- Lauren Jackson, F/C, Seattle Storm
Everyone agrees Lauren Jackson is one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, but nearly nobody has her ranked #1. Lauren Jackson had 73 career win shares, 3rd best all time. She had 18.7 win shares in her two best years — this is the second best two year peak of any player of all time. So, her stats certainly support her elite ranking. What finishes the argument is her accolades, her glory score. Lauren Jackson won 2 rings and secured 3 MVP accolades in her career.
By our metric, and pretty much any way you can swing it if your argument is based on data and not on emotions, Lauren Jackson is the best WNBA player of all time. Her stats are top 2-3 all time, and her accolades and championships are better than average.
2. Tamika Catchings, F, Indiana Fever
The only player with better stats than our WNBA GOAT is Tamika Catchings. She accrued 93 win shares, over 20 more than the second most productive WNBA player. That’s insane, that means her career production was 15-20% better than the second best WNBA player. For an NBA comparison, that is pretty close to the lead that John Stockton has over Jason Kidd in the all time assists record – a record which is widely regarded as one of the most unbreakable records.
Tamika Catchings’ two-year peak in win shares was 17.2 which was the fourth best peak. So, not only was Tamika good for a long time, she was really really good in her prime. The only thing that prevented Tamika Catchings from taking the top spot as the best WNBA player of all time was her relatively poor performance in the rings+MVPs stat. She only won one title and one MVP in her otherwise impressive career. All told, though, Tamika Catchings takes ranks as the second best WNBA player of all time by our metric.
3. Sheryl Swoopes, F/G, Houston Comets
Sheryl Swoopes was one of the few players on our list to suffer from the WNBA not existing for the first few years of her career. Swoopes’ first WNBA season was her age 26 season, smack dab in the middle of her prime. Still, she accrued the 13th most win shares and the third strongest two-year peak of any player in WNBA history.
However, Sheryl Swoopes’ high ranking in our list comes from her dominant glory stats. Over her career, she won 4 championships and 3 MVPS – the most of anyone in our top 10. If Swoopes’ hadn’t missed 4 years of near peak performance, she may very well have topped this list. Sheryl Swoopes ranks as the third best WNBA player of all time according to our model.
4. Cynthia Cooper, G, Houston Comets
Cynthia Cooper is easily the most fascinating person on this list. Cynthia Cooper’s first season in the WNBA was her AGE 34 SEASON. She didn’t play before then because the WNBA didn’t yet exist. As a result, she only accrued 36.6 win shares. But she did that over the course of four years. Let me blow your mind: Cynthia Cooper’s average win shares per season is more than Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird’s best seasons. That’s right, her average season was better than the peak of other top 10 WNBA players. Cynthia Cooper’s peak was so unbelievably high that her spot in this list is crystalized.
In those 4 short years (from age 34 to age 37), Cynthia Cooper won four championships and 2 MVPs. That’s right, excluding her age 40 season where she only played 4 games, Cynthia Cooper won the championship in every season she played.
If Cynthia Cooper had been lucky enough for the WNBA to exist for the entirety of her career, she would undoubtedly, indisputably go down as the best WNBA player of all time. But, because we don’t feel comfortable extrapolating in that way, she’ll go down as the fourth best WNBA player ever.
5. Diana Taurasi, G, Phoenix Mercury
Most other lists you may look at will have Diana Taurasi as the best player in WNBA history. But our stats only have her ranked as the fifth best WNBA player of all time. Taurasi’s longevity is very good: she has the fourth most win shares of all time. However, what holds her back is that she has not had as high of a peak as some of the others on this list. Her two best years combined for only 14.2 win shares.
As we pointed out above, Taurasi’s best two seasons were of lower quality than Cynthia Cooper’s average season. Taurasi has also had 3 championships and 1 MVP which is enough to not be docked any points in the “glory” category. So, while many lists have her as the best WNBA player of all time, she only ranks fifth in our list.
6. Sylvia Fowles, C, Chicago Sky/Minnesota Lynx
Sylvia Fowles story is one of longevity, even more so than Diana Taurasi. Sylvia Fowles has the second most accrued win shares over her career, behind only Tamika Catchings. Her peak was also fairly strong. However, Sylvia Fowles was lacking in the glory department. Over her long career, she only secured two championships and 1 MVP award. Because she couldn’t get it done when it mattered most, she only ranks as the sixth best WNBA player of all time in our list.
7. Maya Moore, F, Minnesota Lynx
Maya Moore is another fascinating case, not unlike Cynthia Cooper. In 2019, Maya Moore announced that she was retiring at age 29 to fight for social justice – a move mirrored by one of The Data Jocks’ favorite personalities, Renee Montgomery just a year later. In her short career, Maya Moore reached 15th in career win shares and had a reasonably high peak. She also won 4 championships and 1 MVP in 8 years. The only other player to have that high of a density of championships and MVPs in such a short time is Cynthia Cooper.
There is no telling where Maya Moore would have ended on this list had she continued to play, but fighting for causes you believe in is more important than climbing arbitrary all-time greatest WNBA players lists. Even so, Maya Moore goes down in our list as the sixth best WNBA player ever.
8. Candace Parker, F/C, Los Angeles Sparks/Chicago Sky
Candance Parker deserves the credit for being one of the faces of the modern WNBA. In particular, she deserves a lot of credit for being one of the players responsible for the skyrocketing popularity of the WNBA. Her career stats are also quite impressive. Fifth in all time career win shares, the same peak performance as Diana Taurasi, and 2 (so far!) championships and 2 MVPs. I wish we could give her a boost for her name recognition alone, but Candace Parker slots in as our 8th best WNBA player of all time.
9. Lisa Leslie, C, Los Angeles Sparks
I know I speak for an entire generation when I say that I best remember Lisa Leslie (and Kevin Garnett!) from the countless hours I spent playing backyard basketball. But her real life career was no joke, either. Leslie was 8th all time in career win shares. Along with Sheryl Swoopes and Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie leads the entire WNBA with the most MVP awards of all time with 3. Lisa Leslie was a monster – and she ranks number 9 all time in our list of best WNBA player’s ever.
10. Sue Bird, G, Seattle Storm
I’ve said this for both Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi, but Sue Bird is the definitive model for longevity in professional women’s sports. In Men’s sports, her best comparisons for longevity would be Lebron James, Jerry Rice, and Wayne Gretzky. Good company. Over her long career, she has amassed the 6th most all time win shares, though her peak performance is not nearly as high as the others on this list. She has just been so consistent for so long. Over her career, she was won 4 championships to bolster her already impressive resume. Sue Bird rounds out our top 10 of greatest WNBA players ever.
Current Players Who I Think Will Enter the Top 10
Like any sport, deciding the best WNBA player of all time is a fluid process. There are a few current players who I think – once their careers are finished – will break into the top 10.
First, Breanna Stewart. Breanna Stewart is only 27 years old and has already led the league twice in win shares. On her current trajectory, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up in the top 3 all time in win shares. And, with 2 championships and 1 MVP under her belt, she is well on her way to racking up enough accolades to be a top WNBA player of all time.
Second, Nneka Ogwumike. At 31 years old and with already the 12th most all time win shares, her resume is impressive. Nneka’s peak was also insanely impressive: In the 2016 and 2017 seasons, she tallied 18.0 win shares. The only players with higher peaks were Lauren Jackson (our crowned best WNBA player of all time) and Cynthia Cooper who we’ve talked about enough already. Though still with time to accrue more, the only thing potentially holding Nneka back from cracking the all time lists is her glory stats. At the time of writing this article, she only has 1 MVP and 1 championship.
