What makes Tamika Catchings the best...
From Twitter:
Reggie Miller @ReggieMillerTNT Yes
Yes Yes, Fever wins WNBA Championship!!! Tamika Catchings deserves all of this,
heart n soul!!!!!
Way of WADE @DwyaneWade Congrts to
my fellow chicagoan @Catchin24 on her first WNBA title..well deserved and over
due happy 4 you..
WNBA @WNBA Tamika Catchings defines
heart.
Candace Parker @Candace_Parker Congrats
to my sis @Catchin24 and the Indiana Fever! Ive seen your heart and passion
first hand...second to none. LOVE YA dude....
LeBron James @KingJames Congrats to
the Fever on winning the WNBA finals! Special S/O to T. Catch on her 1st one! I
know the feeling. Bout Damn Time!!
Tamika Catchings @Catchin24 #SoBlessed!
Am I dreaming rt now... Love my Team
Quotes from her peers:
"Of all the players at
Tennessee, Tamika was the one that I don't remember Pat ever having to get on
about her effort," said Fever assistant coach Mickie DeMoss, a longtime
Tennessee assistant who helped recruit Catchings. "Never once did Pat have
to say to her, 'Is that all you've got?’ Of course, they are also both very
stubborn and strong-willed, so they'd butt heads every once in a while, too.
But it was because they were both so darn competitive and wanted so badly to
win all the time."
"Everybody talks about the
missing piece in Tamika Catchings' career, and our players took that
personally," Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. "I really believe that was
an incentive."
Catchings takes that missing line on
her resume personally. "Being able to succeed on every level but this, and
knowing we've had teams and I've had teammates that want the same thing, but we
can't put it together when we need to, it's like, `Well, what do I need to do
to motivate my teammates? What do I need to do to consistently encourage them
and know that, no matter whether they make mistakes or not, we're behind them
100 percent,"' she said.
Dunn said. "I don't think
anybody does all the things that Catch does. She defends, she rebounds, she's
inside, she's outside, she has assists. I just don't think there's anybody more
versatile than Catchings."
Maya Moore, another of the Lynx stars
who was Catchings' Olympic teammate, added, "She's one of those players
you want to model yourself after. She has a view of the bigger picture of the
sport; she's never just thinking about herself."
Lynx guard Lindsay Whalen, an Olympic
teammate of Catchings, added: “Of course, it’s hard for us, But Tamika is one
of the best people you could know.”
"Tamika is one of those players
that you could call any time of the day or night to talk about anything, and
she'd help you, no matter who you are or who you play for," Minnesota's
Seimone Augustus said. "Not all players are like that, especially great
players."
As Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve put
it, "There's not anybody that cannot be happy for Tamika Catchings to
finally get a championship."
