Coming up with a list of the 25 greatest players from any sport is tough, but it's especially tough for women's basketball, because the WNBA itself is far younger than the actual sport. You aren't going to find people listing a pre-NFL player as one of the greatest NFL players, but a list of the greatest women's basketball players is bound to feature at least a couple of names from before the current professional league existed.
And that's exactly what this list does. While advancements in the game mean that the vast majority of the greatest women's basketball players of all time are from the WNBA era, expect at least a couple of names that come from a time before the W. These are the 25 best women's basketball players of all time.
25. Molly Bolin
We start off with a name that many readers have never heard of: Molly Bolin, or, "Machine Gun" Molly Bolin, as she was know when she was a star in the Women's Professional Basketball League. The league's co-MVP and leading scorer in 1980, Bolin' 32.8 points per game were the most in a season in the short-lived history of that league.
There are a lot of "what ifs" about Bolin's career. She played at the relatively small Grand View University in Des Moines, where she had to relearn how to play basketball due to Iowa high schools using a six-on-six half-court style of play. She sat out one college season to get married and have a child. The WBL folded at the height of her career, and we never really got to see a sustained period of Bolin playing her best basketball. Talent-wise, though, she's up there with the best to ever play the game.
24. Chamique Holdsclaw
It's hard to figure out how to weigh college careers when building this list, but I settled on "college careers matter far more when evaluating pre-WNBA players than WNBA-era players, because now we get to see these players play against all the other best players in the world." That's why Chamique Holdsclaw comes in at No. 24, which feels a bit wrong considering she was a two-time Naismith winner.
Her WNBA career wasn't quite as strong, though. A six-time All-Star and the 2022 scoring leader, Holdsclaw's prime was a bit short-lived once she arrived in the pro game. She was an instant contributor as a rookie in 1999, but 2005 was her final All-Star appearance. She would later retire and then return from that retirement to play two more solid seasons, but Holdsclaw at the pro level just didn't quite live up to her collegiate performance.
23. Katie Smith
Katie Smith has a long list of accolades, including seven All-Star appearances and the 2021 scoring title. She was one of the best defensive guards of her generation as well. Her well-rounded talent allowed her to be really good for a long time, with her first and final All-Star appearances coming a decade apart. She was part of two WNBA championship teams, and also won a pair of ABL titles before moving to the WNBA.
Those ABL titles should be talked about more when it comes to Smith. While that league lasted just two and a half seasons, the high salaries in it led to it having arguably a higher pool of talent at first than the WNBA. Smith leading her Columbus Quest team to both titles in league history is a major plus on her resume, even if that's an era of basketball that gets overshadowed by the launch of the WNBA.
22. Becky Hammon
Before she was one of the WNBA's best coaches ever, Becky Hammon was one of its best players. A six-time All-Star, Hammon is one of the best point guards in WNBA history, finishing in the top five in assists per game six times. She was also a highly effective shooter, ranking 19th in league history in true shooting percentage and fourth in career free throw percentage.
Hammon also excelled in college despite playing at Colorado State, a fairly low-profile school. She was the WAC Player of the Year three times and a First-team All-WAC selection in each of her seasons. Despite that, Hammon went undrafted and had to work her way into the league, first as a backup behind Teresa Weatherspoon in New York until she finally managed to take over the starting job full-time in 2004.
21. Brittney Griner
If you followed Baylor when Brittney Griner was there, you might have expected her to end up eventually finishing in the top 10 on a list like this. Griner gained national attention with her dominant play, which led to her going No. 1 overall to the Phoenix Mercury. Griner's had a very, very strong career, though only making three All-WNBA First Team appearances probably means she fell a bit shy of expectations.
Still, Griner led the league in blocks eight times and scoring twice. In 2021, she finished second in MVP voting and looked to be positioned to contend for the award in 2022, but she was never able to get on the floor that season as she was detained in a Russian prison. While she's since made two All-Star appearances, there's a pretty big "what if" situation about the rest of Griner's career because of what happened in 2022.
20. Nneka Ogwumike
It often feels like, despite the accolades, Nneka Ogwumike flew under the radar throughout her career. It's a weird thing to say about a former MVP and 11-time All-Star, but she did only make one All-WNBA First Team appearance while appearing on the All-WNBA Second Team seven times. Rarely the "best" player in the league (minus 2016), but always one of the best.
Still, we're talking about one of the league's best bigs ever. She's in the top 20 all-time in points and rebounds per game and the top 50 in steals and blocks per game. While she never represented the United States in the Olympics, she was part of two World Cup-winning rosters and was also a two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year in college.
19. Seimone Augustus
Speaking of players who went under the radar, Seimone Augustus was basically the league's ultimate glue player. A four-time WNBA champion and the 2011 Finals MVP, Augustus had her two best seasons as a scorer in her first two WNBA seasons then started to share the workload a little more. Despite that, Augustus ranks 28th in WNBA history in points per game with a scoring average of 15.4.
The Minnesota Lynx dynasty during the 2010s wouldn't exist without Augustus. Maybe she isn't the first player you think of when you think about those Lynx team, but Augustus really held it all together. If her career hadn't featured a few too many seasons where injury limited her on-court time, she'd rank even higher historically.
18. Tina Thompson
Tina Thompson's career began with four consecutive championships, but because she was on teams with Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes, she doesn't get as much credit for those titles, even though she was First-Team All-WNBA in 1997 and 1998, then Second Team in 1999 and 2000.
Thompson ended up playing 12 seasons in Houston -- all 12 seasons that the franchise originally existed. Only once in that span did she not earn at least some kind of vote in the MVP race, and she also made two All-Star appearances after the Comets folded, including during her final season with the Seattle Storm in 2013. Thompson ranks 11th in WNBA history in win shares.
17. Lusia Harris
Another pre-WNBA name, Lusia Harris was the best women's basketball player of the 1970s. She was a dominant part of Delta State's three AIAW championship teams, the tournament that served as a precursor to the WNBA, winning MVP of that tournament in each of those championship seasons.
It can be tough to find stats from that era, but what we do have shows how good Harris was. In the 1975-76 season, for example, Harris averaged 31.2 points per game. She remains the only woman officially drafted by an NBA team and she played briefly in the WBL for the Houston Angels, but that was it as far as a pro career.
16. Yolanda Griffith
Yolanda Griffith missed the start of the WNBA as she was playing in the ABL at the time, where she won a Defensive Player of the Year award. After that league folded, Griffith entered the WNBA Draft, going No. 2 overall to the Sacramento Monarchs and immediately won the league's MVP award in her first season.
The 6-foot-4 big was a rebounding machine, especially on the offensive glass, with her 1,049 career offensive boards still ranking fifth in league history despite her entering the league as a 29-year-old. Her first four seasons in the league were her best, but she stuck around as a very good role player for a few years after that, ultimately playing nine years in Sacramento before leaving for Seattle.
15. Sylvia Fowles
Sylvia Fowles might be the most consistent player in WNBA history. She spent 15 seasons in the league and averaged double-digit points in all of them. After her first two seasons, she never had fewer than 8.3 rebounds per game. A two-time block leader, Fowles made 11 All-Defensive teams and won a pair of championships.
Even in her final season in 2022, Fowles was still going out there and doing her thing. She made another All-Defensive First Team that year and almost averaged a double-double, finishing the year with 14.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. She probably could have kept going at a high level for another three or four years based on how she played in that last campaign.
14. Elena Delle Donne
What a long, strange trip it was for Elena Delle Donne, who constantly battled health and injury issues that led to her never fully hitting her ceiling. There's a universe where the two-time MVP is still in the league, has stolen at least one or two MVP awards from other players and is viewed as a clear top-10 player all-time, but we just never got to se that.
Delle Donne played 10 seasons in the WNBA, though in 2021 she appeared in just three games. She led the Washington Mystics to a title in 2019 and looked to be on the verge of turning that team into a dynasty before COVID struck, which led to EDD sitting out the 2020 bubble season. She still looked great in her first full season back in 2022, but the window for Washington had closed.
13. Sue Bird
Sue Bird was not the most talented point guard in WNBA history. She was not the best passer. What she was, though, was a very, very high-level player for a very long, long time, and that's why she can be called the best pure point guard in women's basketball. A 13-time All-Star, Bird led the league in assists three times, and she remained a valuable part of the Seattle Storm all the way into her 40s.
Sure, Bird never won an MVP award. In fact, she finished in the top five of the MVP voting just three times during her career. But she's a four-time WNBA champion and also added a Naismith to her resume during her collegiate career at UConn. Bird's a great example of how a player doesn't need to be "the best" from an athletic standpoint to still be one of the best players of all time.
12. Tina Charles
Tina Charles is the best player in WNBA history without a championship ring. Sure, you can dock her a bit for that, but the eight-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion and one-time MVP was one of the elite players of the 2010s.
Charles is currently the WNBA's all-time leader in field goals made and is second in points scored, showing that she's one of the most productive players in league history. Yes, the lack of postseason success -- she played in just 23 playoff games -- is an issue when judging her historically, but you can't deny that Charles is one of the most gifted interior scorers we've ever seen.
11. Breanna Stewart
This feels low for Breanna Stewart, who followed up arguably the greatest collegiate career of this century with a professional career that's featured a pair of MVP awards, but take that as a credit to all the talent to come and not as any knock on Stewart, who likely moves into the top 10 if this list were being put together a few years in the future,
Stewart was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player four times and has a pair of WNBA Finals MVP awards to her name with three total WNBA titles. There really isn't a knock against her game other than her strange regression to being a bad 3-point shooter over the past few seasons.
10. Candace Parker
Only one player in WNBA history has won both MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season: Candace Parker, who took home both awards in 2008 after averaging 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. She'd go on to add another MVP award in 2013.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Parker's career was what she did in 2021. After spending her entire career up to that point in Los Angeles, Parker signed with her hometown Chicago Sky and immediately led the team to a championship. While she wasn't the same player statisically as she was earlier in her career, she was able to be the glue that really brought everything together for the Sky.
9. Maya Moore
Some people call Maya Moore the GOAT because of how good she was at her peak, though the fact that her professional career lasted just eight seasons makes it a little tough to support that claim. (Yes, players from the early days of the WNBA have been in that conversation with shorter careers, but that's through no fault of their own, since the league didn't exist until 1997.)
Moore's eight seasons were really, really good, though. While she won just a single MVP award, she led the Lynx to four titles and was the Finals MVP in 2013. Her career 18.4 points per game rank ninth in league history, and her 1.7 steals per game rank 12th, showcasing how well-rounded Moore's game was. She's also the biggest non-injury what-if we've ever seen.
8. Lisa Leslie
One of the early faces of the league, Lisa Leslie finished in the top five of the MVP voting in each of the league's first eight seasons. Over that span, she took home the award twice, and also won a Defensive Player of the Year award. Oh, and in those eight seasons, she also finished in the top five of the DPOY voting seven times.
One of Leslie's biggest accomplishments came in 2008. After missing the 2007 season for maternity leave, Leslie came back and won another DPOY award and earned a First-Team All-WNBA nod. Even in 2009, her final season, she was still a dominant foce shooting a career-high 51.8 percent from the floor and averaging 15.4 points per game while making the All-WNBA Second Team.
7. Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi is the first name that many fans likely think of when they think about the WNBA. The long-time Phoenix Mercury star won the scoring title five times and took home the 2009 MVP award, and her longevity allowed her to become almost the face of the league.
Her longevity also helped her earn a number of records. She's the WNBA's all-time leader in the following stats: field goal attempts, 3-point field goals made, free throws and, most importantly, points. Are there holes in Taurasi's game, especially on the defensive side? Sure, but it takes real talent to be the league's all-time leading scorer.
6. Lauren Jackson
Lists like this tend to be dominated by American-born players because it's the nation that really popularized women's basketball, but Australian Lauren Jackson is the undisputed winner of the title of best international player in WNBA history. The No. 1 overall pick by Seattle in 2001, Jackson won three MVP awards during her career as well as a Defensive Player of the Year award.
Unfortunately, Jackson's WNBA career was cut short by injuries, and she missed the 2013 season with a hamstring injury and never played in the league again. She did eventually resume playing in Australia and, in 2022 at the age of 40, she returned to the NBL1 East league, winning MVP. She'd then return to Australia's top league, the WNBL, where she helped Perth win the 2024 title, marking her seventh WNBL ring.
5. Sheryl Swoopes
Just from who has been listed so far and who you can guess is still to come, you should know now that Sheryl Swoopes is below her Houston Comets teammate Cynthia Cooper here despite winning three MVP awards. Parsing how to arrange these two players was a very difficult task, but Cooper's international career and her Finals MVPs have her in the lead. Still, Swoopes goes down as a top-five player of all time.
In addition to the MVPs, Swoopes is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, and she ranks second in WNBA history in steals per game. When she was out on the floor, she was a two-way monster, though injuries limited her at times, including costing her the entire 2001 season, a year that is sandwiched by Swoopes MVP campaigns. She also deserves credit for returning to the league in 2011 as a 40-year-old ater two seasons off and averaging 8.2 points per game for Tulsa that season.
4. Cheryl Miller
There's likely no one who will dispute this fact: Cheryl Miller is the greatest women's basketball player to have never played in the WNBA. Full stop, not debatable. Miller was basically an unstoppable force in college, and if there'd been a WNBA for her to join after her time at USC, she'd have been an unstoppable force there as well.
Just look at Miller's resume: a four-time All-American in high school, followed by a college career that saw Miller with the Naismith Player of the Year award three times. She won an Olympic gold. She won a FIBA World Championship title. Everything Miller touched during the 1980s turned to gold. It's a shame knee injuries ended her playing career before the WNBA launched, because even a late-30s Miller would have been a force when the league began.
3. Cynthia Cooper
The biggest knock against Cynthia Cooper is that she was already in her mid-30s when she joined the WNBA for its inaugural season in 1997. Because of that, she played just four years (plus four games in 2003 when she returned to the Houston Comets after two seasons as the head coach of the Phoenix Mercury). Those four seasons, though, were really, really good.
Cooper won a pair of MVP awards. She led the league in scoring three times. And most importantly, she led the Comets to four championships, winning Finals MVP each time. Before coming to the WNBA, Cooper won a pair of national titles as a player at USC, and while playing in Italy for a decade before the WNBA launched, Cooper led that league in scoring in eight of her 10 seasons. If the WNBA had existed for all of Cooper's career, I feel confident saying that she'd be the league's all-time leading scorer.
2. Tamika Catchings
Reader, I know what you might be thinking here, which is that Tamika Catchings is way too high on this list. She's not usually this close to the top when people discuss the greatest women's basketball players of all time, so why is she No. 2 here? The answer is simple: advanced stats love Catchings, and those advanced stats can't be ignored.
While Catchings won just a single MVP and a single WNBA title, she's arguably the most impactful two-way wing in league history. A 12-time All-Defensive selection and seven-time steals leader, Catchings had the ability to single-handedly lock up an opposing team's best perimeter scorer while also being an extremely good scorer as well. She's the WNBA's all-time leader in defensive win shares and is also second all-time in offensive win shares. No surprise, then, that her 93.7 career win shares lead the WNBA, and not by a small margin. Nneka Ogwumike is second with 79.9, and the gap between those two is essentially the same as the gap between Ogwumike and seventh-place Breanna Stewart.
1. A'ja Wilson
We are currently witnessing greatness, and after her fifth WNBA MVP award, it's time for us to all admit something: A'ja Wilson is the GOAT. We're currently in a moment where some of the most talented players ever are out there on the floor night after night, and Wilson is somehow standing significantly above everyone else.
The five MVPs -- no one else has more than three -- should speak for themselves, but she's also a three-time Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time scoring champion. We've never seen this combination of offense and defense, and what's even crazier is that Wilson only turned 30 this season. She still has multiple years of her prime left to build an unassailable resume that might take decades to be topped, if it ever even is.
Add us as a preferred source on Google