|
| wnba_profile = tamika_catchings }} Tamika Devonne Catchings (born July 21, 1979) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA and Turkish team Galatasaray. She is a prolific scorer close to and far from the basket, as well as a capable rebounder, ball handler, and defender. After playing at Adlai E. Stevenson High School and graduating from Duncanville High School, Tamika Catchings became one of the stars of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team. In 2001, she was drafted by the Indiana Fever. After sitting out the entire year in which she was drafted due to injury, she had an all-star rookie season in 2002. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. Catchings is a ten-time WNBA All-Star, a five-time All-WNBA selection and is famous for recording the first ever quintuple-double (25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, 10 steals and 10 blocks in 1997). She serves as President of the WNBA Players Association as of the 2012 season. ==Career== Catchings was born in Stratford, New Jersey. She played for Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas, where she was named a WBCA All-American.〔 She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game where she scored twelve points.〔 She is also the first player at any level in history to be officially credited with scoring a quintuple-double. Catchings was an All-American with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball for 1997–2001. As a freshman on the undefeated 1997–98 National champions, she was part of the "Meeks" with Semeka Randall and Chamique Holdsclaw. Catchings was drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2001. Unable to play in the 2001 season due to an ACL injury sustained during her senior year at Tennessee, she had an outstanding year in 2002 and was named WNBA Rookie of the Year. She has led Indiana Fever in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in 6 of her 11 WNBA seasons. Catchings played for the USA women's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, helping the team win the gold medal. In 2005, she scored her 2,000th point in the WNBA. With this she became the fastest player to score 2000 career points in the WNBA, reaching the milestone in only four seasons of play. She is also the fastest to 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists, and 300 steals. In 2005, Catchings was also named the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. Catchings then repeated as Defensive Player of the Year in 2006. She was again named Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010. Also during the 2009 season she led her Indiana Fever to their first ever Eastern Conference championship, however they fell short in their quest to win the WNBA title as they were defeated in five games by the Phoenix Mercury. In 2006, she was voted into the 2006 WNBA All-Star Game, and was also the leading vote-getter, but had to sit out because of a foot injury. At half-time she was announced as a member of the All-Decade Team along with 9 other players and former Comets coach Van Chancellor. Five years later she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.〔http://www.wnba.com/allstar/2011/top15_072311.html〕 Catchings was selected to be a member of the National team representing the USA at the World Championships held in September and October 2010. The team was coached by Geno Auriemma. Because many team members were still playing in the WNBA until just prior to the event, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving for Ostrava and Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Even with limited practice, the team managed to win its first games against Greece by 26 points. The team continued to dominate with victory margins exceeding 20 points in the first five games. Several players shared scoring honors, with Swin Cash, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Lindsay Whalen, and Sylvia Fowles all ending as high scorer in the first few games. The sixth game was against undefeated Australia — the USA jumped out to a 24-point lead and the USA prevailed 83–75. The USA won its next two games by over 30 points, then faced the host team, the Czech Republic, in the championship game. The USA team had only a five-point lead at halftime, which was cut to three points, but the Czechs never got closer. Team USA went on to win the championship and gold medal. Catchings averaged 8.8 points per game.〔 In 2009, Catchings led the league in steals with 2.9 SPG and helped lead the Indiana Fever to a 22-12 record, earning the top seed in the eastern conference. They would end up making it to the finals that year to face the Phoenix Mercury and had a 2-1 series lead but would lose the next two games to be defeated in the finals 3-2. In 2011, Catchings won WNBA Most Valuable Player while averaging 15.5 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 3.5 APG and 2.0 SPG also leading the Indiana Fever to a 21-13 record, topping the eastern conference standings. However in the playoffs she performed poorly offensively averaging a playoff career low 10.0 PPG. The Indiana Fever would end up making it to the eastern conference finals where they got eliminated 2-1 to the Atlanta Dream. In 2012, the Indiana Fever finished second in the eastern conference with a 22-12 record. They made it back to finals that year, this time against the championship defending Minnesota Lynx, but they would defeat Minnesota 3-1 in the series becoming only the second eastern conference franchise to win a WNBA title. Catchings also won WNBA Finals MVP. On August 23, 2014 she set the all time WNBA playoff scoring record off a three-point field goal in Game 3 of the eastern conference semifinals against the Washington Mystics surpassing Lisa Leslie's 908 career playoff points. She finished the game with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 steals also surpassing Lisa Leslie for most WNBA career playoff rebounds (471).〔http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/basketball/wnba/fever/2014/08/23/tamika-catchings-scores-fever-advance-past-mystics/14510175/〕 After the 2014 season she ranks 1st all-time in career playoff points, 1st all-time in career playoff rebounds and 3rd in all-time career regular season scoring. She also holds the WNBA record for most consecutive playoff appearances of 10 straight seasons. In October 2014 in a TV interview, she revealed that she will be retiring after the 2016 Summer Olympics. She said: "I will be retiring in 2016, Lord willing, if my body holds up. Although I plan to step away as a player that is not to say I'll step away from the game, hopefully. I am so thankful and blessed to have had an opportunity to play the game I have loved for so long. God has truly blessed me with an amazing playing career, and now it's time to start transitioning to what He has for me beyond the lines of the basketball floor."〔(WNBA star Tamika Catchings to retire after 2016 Olympics )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tamika Catchings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|