Tamika Catchings has it all — almost.

She has a high school state championship, an NCAA championship, an Olympic Gold Medal.

She was all-American in high school and college, and has two Naismith Awards as the nation’s top player, one in high school player and one in college.

She’s been all-WNBA and earned two of league’s Defensive Player of the Year awards. She has received the WNBA’s Community Assist Award five times.

She also has the respect of her peers, amazing quickness, an unmatched passion for the game and an understanding of its true role in life.

But it is the one thing she doesn’t have that drives her. That one thing is a WNBA championship ring – and when she is driven to do something, she is driven like few others.
To understand Tamika Catchings the adult means knowing Tamika Catchings the child, as the characteristics that define her, and make her special, were apparent early.

Catchings credits those characteristics to her parents. Born with a significant hearing impairment, Catchings struggled early in her life. But her parents pushed, encouraged and cajoled her into overcoming her disability. They would not let her quit when she wanted to. It is that struggle that Tamika credits with teaching her the determination that so defines her life today.

Catchings was one of three children born to former NBA player Harvey Catchings and his wife Wanda. She grew up around sports, with soccer being the first one she played. But it was basketball that grabbed the young Catchings.

A basketball court was her refuge when she faced trying times as a youth. She once told Sports Illustrated, “Whenever I got mad, I would play basketball; whenever I was happy, I would play basketball. Anything I was feeling, I’d play basketball.”
She admits that she has never had career aspirations beyond being a basketball player. In the seventh grade, she decided that she would play in the NBA -- although the ultimate goal was amended to the WNBA rather than its male counterpart, the result was the same. She worked hard, and played harder. Pat Summit, who coached her at Tennessee, says that her strength is her “relentlessness ... she plays harder than anyone.”

And along the way, her teams won. Always.

In high school in 1997, Catchings led powerhouse Duncanville to the Texas state championship and national recognition, and she capped it off with the Naismith player of the year award.

After that stellar high school career, Tamika had her pick of colleges – more than 200, as a matter of fact. But unlike a lot of high school stars who chuck the unwanted mail in the recycling and never think about it again, Catchings sent thank-you letters to all the schools that contacted her because, as she told the New York Times, “For me to not say anything would be selfish.”

And it wasn’t as if she had led recruiters on. For Catchings, the perfect place was Tennessee, with Pat Summit, known for her intensity and drive to win. It was a pairing that allowed Catchings to blossom, on the court, in the classroom and personally.

On the court, Catchings became only the fourth woman in history to be named first team all-American four times. She won the Naismith Award as the nation’s best collegiate women’s player as a junior and likely would have won it the following year had her season not been cut short by a torn ACL.

Just as important, Summit convinced Catchings to again wear the hearing aids that childhood teasing has led her to abandon. That decision was a life-changing one for Catchings. Her sister Tauja noticed the difference. Tauja said at the time, “You can tell she’s a lot more comfortable. She’s the same person, but she’s grown as a person. She’s stepping into a leadership role ... She’s coming out of her shell.”

In the classroom, Catchings also excelled. She was an academic all-SEC honoree, graduated a semester early with a degree in sports management and as an honor roll student, she accumulated a 4.0 GPA in her last semester.

But something is still missing: That WNBA championship ring.

Her career couldn’t begin auspiciously because of the torn ACL. Even though she couldn’t play that first summer, she was the third overall pick by the Indiana Fever. In 2002, though, she was Rookie of the Year and in her five seasons as a pro, she has set standards of performance that are unmatched.

In each of those seasons she has led her team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. She has been honored league for her defense at the close of each season. She has been named to the All-Star team four times and all-WNBA five times. She finished in the top three in the league MVP voting in four of her five seasons. She also won an Olympic gold medal in 2004. In short, she has established herself as one of the top women’s basketball players of all time.

Lin Dunn, her new coach, was the one who drafted Lauren Jackson for Seattle, and Jackson is usually the gold standard when it comes to women’s basketball. She’s the consensus best player in the world, but Dunn says “Lauren has a bigger impact on the offensive end and Tamika has a bigger impact defensively. And neither of them can stand to lose.”

But the Fever have not won enough. Despite Catchings’ performance, Indiana has failed to win a championship in her five seasons. Will she have fallen short of her goals if she doesn’t win a WNBA title? “Definitely,” Catchings says.

Still, it’s hard to imagine Catchings doing any more for her team, and Summit compares her position with the Fever to that of current Tennessee superstar Candace Parker. “For us to win a national championship, the players surrounding Candace had to improve their games,” says Summitt. “When they did, we were successful. The same is true for Tamika and the Fever.” Dunn agrees that players other than Catchings are the key, “We have to be less predictable. Tamika can’t be our first option on every play.”

Does Catchings agree? “Absolutely.” And with Dunn in charge, Catchings is optimistic about this summer. “Brian (Winters) got us to the playoffs, but Lin is the one to get us to the next level.”

What does the team need to do that? “We need consistency in the roster. We have had too many player changes,” says Catchings. “We now have a good core group that has the talent for us to win.”

“We need to be more efficient offensively,” says Dunn. We were 12th in the league in scoring. We need another 10 to 12 points a game. We need to finish in the upper half of the league in rebounding. We need to share the load more and be more well balanced.”

As for Catchings, Dunn says that she can shoot better but that the most important contribution she will make to the team is to “stay healthy.” That is not a given.

Catchings suffered a major injury at the end of the 2007 season when she tore her Achilles’ tendon. While this can be a devastating injury, Summit isn’t terribly worried about her former star. “It’s a difficult injury to come back from,” says Summit, “but if anyone can do it, Tamika can. She is relentless as a player and she will bring that same quality to her rehab.”

Catchings is also confident that she will return completely healthy for the season. Her doctors are bringing her along slowly and not allowing her to push herself and risk her recovery, but she was allowed to begin jogging at the end of January and she looks forward to being able to work out fully again. But, while her rehab has been slower than she wanted, Catchings is confident that she will be 100% by the beginning of the WNBA season at the end of April.

And there’s another focus as well. On Aug. 8, Catchings will lead the USA as it attempts to win its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. The Americans lost the World Championship to the Australians and Lauren Jackson in 2006, and they will pose a major challenge to the U.S. again. Catchings also sees the Russians as a major threat, and if USA Basketball is to defend the Olympic gold, Catchings will need to be 100%. After all, for the first three of those four gold medals, veterans Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley were the mainstays. Now Staley is retired, and the other two are reaching the end of their careers. Catchings sees herself, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi as the threesome that will take their place. Much more so than the men, the American women see themselves as keepers of a legacy. At last year’s World Championships, an injured Swoopes joined the team. She couldn’t play, but she talked with the younger players about the history of U.S. women’s basketball and the adversity the program had overcome. Catchings and the younger Olympians have no desire to be the ones who break the gold-medal streak.

Catchings understands and embraces her role as an emerging leader. “I feel an obligation to pass on the history to the younger players,” she says. Her personal history shows that she is well-suited to be a strong leader, both on and off the court (and in fact, she would like to be a WNBA general manager when her playing days are over).

She is widely respected by her peers, who have elected her president of their WNBA players’ union. In that role, Catchings led the players in the recent negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The six-year agreement they reached met the goals that the players had set, and it “takes care of every player, from the stars to the bench players,” Catchings says. The six-year length of the agreement shows “the players have confidence in the stability of the league.” At the same time, the players recognize the financial limitations of the WNBA and adjusted their demands accordingly.

But there is much more to Catchings’ life than basketball, and talking only about her many basketball achievements tells just part of her story. She learned at an early age about the importance of giving back to the community. Harvey Catchings always got involved in the NBA’s many community outreach activities and always took his children with him. Since she grew up “wanting to be like my dad,” she learned that lesson well.

In her first year at Indiana, Catchings accepted every community outreach invitation she received, and frequently speaks to groups of children, especially those with a hearing impairment. “As a kid I always pictured pro athletes as perfect,” she once told Sports Illustrated. “Talking to these kids lets them know they’re not alone.” She has established the Catch the Stars Foundation, which attempts to teach life skills and motivate at-risk children so they can reach their dreams. She holds basketball camps for youngstsers with the only admission cost is canned food that is donated to low-income families. Catchings brings the same relentlessness to her charity work as the basketball court, and she has received almost as many honors for her charitable work as she has for her basketball skills.

So in her 28 years, Tamika Catchings has proven her excellence both as a basketball player and as a person -- now if she could just get that WNBA Championship ring.