Tamika Catchings is the answer to almost every meaningful question about the Indiana Fever. Who did the franchise build around in its first decade? Catchings. Who carried it to its only championship? Catchings, in the fourth quarter of Game 4. Who is the only player in franchise history to have her number raised to the rafters? Catchings, number twenty-four.
She arrived in 2001 as the third overall pick of the WNBA draft out of Tennessee. She tore her ACL before her rookie year. The franchise — three years old, expansion-thin, still figuring out who it was — waited a season. She came back in 2002 and won Rookie of the Year, made All-WNBA First Team, and made All-Defensive First Team. She was twenty-two.
She played fifteen seasons in Indiana. She wore one uniform her entire career. She made the All-Star team eleven times, the All-WNBA team eleven times, and the All-Defensive team twelve times. She won Defensive Player of the Year five times. She won MVP in 2011. She averaged a double-double in points and rebounds across her career. She averaged more than two steals per game for thirteen consecutive seasons.
The 2012 championship is the year that anchors the franchise history of the Indiana Fever, and Catchings is the reason. The Fever beat the Minnesota Lynx three games to one in the Finals. Catchings was named Finals MVP. In the clinching Game 4, she scored twenty-five points. She was thirty-two years old, in her eleventh season, and she was finally the champion the franchise had built itself around.
She retired after the 2016 season. The Hall of Fame inducted her in 2020 — her first year of eligibility, by acclamation. A statue of her was unveiled outside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2024.
She remains, by any honest accounting, the most important player the Indiana Fever has ever had. The Vault keeps her here in case anyone forgets.