How do I put into context the impact of the career of Tamika Catchings?

Trying to capture the magnitude of all she has done, and all that she stands for, is daunting. She has meant so much to everyone around her. Her legacy as a person exceeds her accomplishments as a player, and that is a very tall order.

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In terms of longevity, durability, consistency, humility and supreme all-around excellence, nobody in the women’s game has ever compared with Tamika Catchings. With all due respect to the greats of our game – Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson – even current contemporaries Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird – nobody wins games in as many ways as Tamika Catchings; nobody has impacted the overall health and long-term success of a franchise quite like Tamika; nobody has dived so deep into her surrounding community as Tamika; and nobody has spent an entire career of 15-plus seasons with the same franchise.

The numbers spanning her career are voluminous. They are staggering. Combined with the broadening reach of her reputation and growing celebrity, she has earned single-name recognition similar to other sports stars like Jeter, Manning, Brady and Ripken. In Indianapolis and the NBA, certainly Reggie is an applicable comparison.

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Her numbers, though, are the only way that I know to accurately reflect this woman’s all-around excellence.

Without further ado and though she still has two seasons to play, here are some of the numbers that depict the all-around excellence that is Tamika Catchings.

There are a good number of players who have won NCAA championships, WNBA titles and Olympic gold medals. Of those, Catchings is one of just four who have also been named WNBA MVP and WNBA Finals MVP – Catchings, Maya Moore, Taurasi and Cooper. Catchings, Moore and Cooper each won state prep titles, also, but Catchings bears distinction as being a state high school champion and Miss Basketball in two different states (Illinois and Texas)!

• Catchings has won at every level, and has had tremendous success in her first year at both the college and pro level. As a college freshman in 1997-98, she helped Tennessee to an unbeaten season, 39-0, while capturing an NCAA crown and being named NCAA Freshman of the Year. Five years later (after missing her first pro season due to injury in 2001), she was the WNBA Rookie of the Year while leading the upstart Fever to its first playoff appearance – and the first of 11 in 13 seasons.

• Talk about winning games in more ways than anybody, Catchings is the only player on record, male or female, to post a quintuple-double in a single basketball game (25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, 10 steals and 10 blocks with Duncanville High School in 1997).

• A tri-captain of the USA’s gold-medal winning basketball team in the 2012 Olympics in London, Catchings hopes to seek a fourth Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She hopes to join a very exclusive club, perhaps joined by fellow captains Bird and Taurasi. Only two American basketball players have ever achieved Olympic gold four times – Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie.

In 2012, at age 33, Catchings was the only WNBA player to start every regular season (34) and playoff game (10), as well as every game in the Olympics (8). That’s durability; and commitment.

• Her commitment to the Fever has been unparalleled. She will complete her entire pro career with one franchise – the first WNBA player ever to spend 15 or more seasons with the same club. Set to begin her 14th season on the court with Indiana (not counting 2001), Catchings joins an elite list of NBA counterparts with as many seasons of an entire career playing with the same team: Kobe Bryant (19), John Stockton (19), Tim Duncan (18), Reggie Miller (18), Dirk Nowitzki (17), John Havlicek (16), Hal Greer (15), Elgin Baylor (14), Joe Dumars (14), Tony Parker (14), David Robinson (14), and Jerry West (14).

• She has led the Fever in points, rebounds, assists and steals in eight different seasons. No other WNBA player has ever led her team in as many categories even once.

• No other player has ever finished a season in the WNBA’s top 10 in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks in any single season. Catchings, though, has done it twice (2002 and 2006).

• She will finish her career in the WNBA’s all-time top 10 in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks – the only player ever to reach such lofty totals in all categories.

Who else does ALL of those things so naturally and so consistently?

• She is on pace to reach 1,000 steals in her pro career, nearly TWICE that of her nearest challenger. Though perhaps a longshot statistically, she also is on pace to break WNBA career marks for points and rebounds. Except during the league’s early years of infancy, it is doubtful that any player has held both marks simultaneously.

• She lays claim as one of the most prolific playoff competitors in WNBA history, becoming the league’s career leader in postseason points and rebounds in 2014, while making a record 10th consecutive playoff appearance. She is the only player in league history to rank in the Top 10 among career playoff leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.

• No player has won the Defensive Player of the Year award as many times (5), nor led the league in steals as often (5). She has earned a WNBA player of the week award on 21 occasions, more than any other player.

And yet those numbers only tell half of her story. They only speak to her on-the-court excellence.

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She is also widely respected by her teammates and opponents, alike. She serves as president of the WNBA Players Association and has twice received the league’s Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award. She was the very first recipient of the league’s Dawn Staley Leadership Award.

Did I mention that Catchings is one of a select few athletes ever invited to attend the State of the Union Address? Catchings has received the invitation twice, by two different presidents – a Republican (George W. Bush) and a Democrat (Barack Obama).

What has that got to do with basketball? What cast her onto the Presidential stage?

Perhaps the same attributes that prompted Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton to invite her as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports. Or the same characteristics that drew an invitation from the White House to serve on a mentoring panel. She has traveled internationally as an ambassador of sport for both the NBA/WNBA and the U.S. State Department; and she is a national ambassador for the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team that promotes good work in college communities.

Her civic leadership is highly praised. She is universally liked.

She is probably the single-most influential citizen-athlete women’s basketball has ever produced. The founder of her own non-profit Catch The Stars Foundation in 2004, Catchings may be one of the most humble and selfless athletes in all of sports.

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Behind all of the numbers and stats and awards and accolades and high-ranking distinction, the daughter of former NBA star Harvey Catchings was born with a hearing deficiency and has become a model for overcoming life’s obstacles. Indeed, a mission of the 10-year-old Catch The Stars Foundation is to aid youth. A core component in the Foundation has been mentoring programs for boys and girls aimed at building self-esteem while promoting health, fitness and education. They are not just programs that bear her name, either. Tamika is present. Always, with a personal stamp placed on the children who participate.

Perhaps her greatest attribute on the court, in the eyes of many coaches, athletes and analysts, is that she never takes a play off – not offensively, not defensively, and no matter the score. She has been called the “hardest working player in the WNBA.”

That diligence has served her well in growing the Foundation, too.

Folks, we may be witnessing the twilight of a great career, but don’t think for a moment that Tamika’s going to coast into retirement. So long as Tamika Catchings is in uniform, young boys and girls will aspire to achieve her greatness and the Indiana Fever will remain in contention for another WNBA title.

2015 Fever Open House: You can meet Catchings and Fever head coach Stephanie White at the 2015 Fever Open House at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sat., March 21 from 12:30 – 2:00 PM. Learn More »