In a league that is constantly growing, shattering glass ceilings and seeing new firsts with every new season, the 2022 WNBA season will also be seeing a few lasts.
One confirmed last is that of Sylvia Fowles, the Minnesota Lynx centre who has solidified her place in WNBA history with her play, winning just about every award available including winning Defensive Player of the Year for the 2021 season.
A two-time WNBA champion, winning Finals MVP in both those appearances, winning league MVP in 2017 – her 10th season in the league – and being named a WNBA All-Star seven times, Fowles has been one of the pillars in Minnesota’s success.
The Lynx franchise leader in field goal percentage (60.9), rebounds per game (9.8) and double-doubles (88), a four-time Olympic gold medallist and one of the W25, the greatest 25 players in the WNBA’s 25 year history, Fowles chooses to step away from the game after her 15th season with aspirations of becoming a mother.
The impact Fowles has had on the court can be measured with all her accolades and leaderboard stats, but the impact she has had on those around her, the fans of Minnesota basketball and every centre who will play the game after her is harder to track data on.
“The main reason for my return had a lot to do with our fans. I wanted to make sure I gave them the opportunity to see me play my final season,” said Fowles in a statement released by the team after her announcement.
“It feels right that my playing career finishes in Minnesota; there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
In a league that is constantly growing – though roster sizes and salary caps haven’t quite gotten to the point of expansion the way viewership, talent and interest has – each coming year brings an exciting crop of talent that audiences fawn over in who could be the next “face” of the league.
In 2016 it was Breanna Stewart, who has exceeded all expectations both domestically and overseas in her play, who has somehow only gotten better since her time under Geno Auriemma, and who will also get a nomination in the GOAT talks when it’s her time to retire – she’s still only 27.
In 2020, it was Sabrina Ionescu, whose time as a rookie was cut relatively short due to injury, and who may not have been as productive as many Liberty fans would have liked in 2021, though the acquisition of Betnijah Laney and the development of Michaela Onyenwere more than made up for it.
In 2023, it will be Paige Bueckers or Aliyah Boston – the former a young sensation who took hold of the women’s basketball world before she ever stepped foot on UConn’s campus, the latter who put the world on notice with her nation-best two-way play en route to a national championship title.
Yet with all the upcoming talent to look forward to, it is not lost that this may be the last season viewers will get to see some of the greatest women’s basketball players to ever exist take the hardwood.
Beyond Fowles, there are two question marks that are floating around the league in the form of two guards who have never played on the same WNBA team – they’ve both actually never left the franchises they were drafted by – but have an inseparable bond from the game.
In 2002, Sue Bird was taken with the No. 1 overall pick out of UConn to the Seattle Storm. Two years later, Diana Taurasi would do the same, landing with the Phoenix Mercury instead.
Teammates as young women at UConn and five Olympic gold medals together, a record, and 2022 could be the last time either of the legendary guards put on a WNBA uniform.
Bird confirmed that the Tokyo Olympics would be her last, though Taurasi left an air of mystery as to what her future holds, as she never tries to let anybody know her next move.
When it comes to the WNBA, though Bird had no hard confirmation, she signalled this is probably the end of the road for her too.
“I think it’s assumed to be my last and I do believe all arrows are pointing in that direction,” Bird said earlier in the year.
“For some reason, I don’t necessarily want to operate in that space because I think for my personality … it doesn’t necessarily fit for every game I go into to be, `This is Sue’s last game in this city. This is her last time putting her shoe on.'”
Even with passion for the game being very prominent for both players, and still competing at a high level, injuries and growing older has also taken its toll on both players.
Taurasi missed time in 2021 due to injuries to her chest and ankle, playing just 16 games, on top of playing only six games in 2019 due to a back injury.
Bird also missed the entirety of the 2019 season with an injury to her knee, but returned in 2020 and even managed to play for 30 of 32 games in 2021. However, when re-signing with the Storm in February, Bird opted for league veteran’s minimum which many believed to be a move for her farewell tour.
If it is the last time the dynamic duo take opposite sides of the court, they’ve left more than a legacy on the game.
Outside of their dominance for USA Basketball, each is a WNBA champion as Bird claimed her fourth title in 2020, while Taurasi holds three titles of her own with Phoenix. Taurasi is the league’s all-time scoring leader, while Bird is the league’s all-time assists leader.
You could spend hours going through the accolades of the two, in their two-decade long careers, and marvel at how after all this time they are still able to produce at such a high level.
But what will be missed most when the two leave the game isn’t just their ball movement or ability to find the rim, and isn’t even just the passion they bring to the game, whether it’s Taurasi telling a referee to meet her in the lobby, or Bird advocating for a change in the playoff format, which was implemented for 2022.
For one, it’s their leadership that will be missed, as players who were born in the years Bird and Taurasi got drafted now enter the league, and get to play alongside players they idolized from a young age, who let them know that women’s basketball is important and to keep working towards the dream of being a professional athlete.
The league also loses women who believed in the product, their own abilities and their teammates, who didn’t know what 20 years ahead would hold but continued to play for the love of the game and to make room for women’s sports in the future even when those around them were praying on the downfall of successful women in sport.
While the new generation brings new perspectives, new energy, and new opportunities for women’s basketball, the pioneers of the game who are still playing bring just as much value every time they take the court and still deserve their flowers for all they bring to the game for themselves, and for the players who come after.
