Give Me Five: Unbreakable (or Very Difficult to Break) WNBA Records
Analyzing the top five records that are unlikely to fall anytime soon
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Last week, we looked at five WNBA records that could fall this season. Records are made to be broken, after all. The following five players and teams didn’t receive that memo. Consider this the WNBA’s answer to UConn’s 111-game winning streak, Joe Dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, and Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857 career points. Here are the top five WNBA records that are either unbreakable or highly unlikely to fall in the near future.
Before we start, it’s important to recognize that there have been many on-court changes over the WNBA’s 27-season history. The pace of play is faster, offenses are more prolific, etc. Some of the records below are unbreakable (or very difficult to break) primarily because of the era in which they were set. Any such records receive a lower ranking on this list.
Honorable mention: Diana Taurasi’s career scoring record of 10K and counting
Shoutout to Diana Taurasi, who hit 10,000 career points on Aug. 3 and is effectively lapping the field at this point when it comes to the WNBA career scoring record (she’s more than 2,500 points ahead of No. 2 on the list). While it’s a phenomenal accomplishment, Bill James’ “The Favorite Toy” projection tool suggests there’s a handful of players – A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Arike Ogunbowale – with a not insignificant chance of hitting 11,000 career points.
No. 5: The 2007 Sacramento Monarchs’ offensive rebounding rate of 39.1% and the 2001 Cleveland Rockers’ 55.9 points allowed per game
Never say never. With apologies to Justin Bieber, these records will never fall. They’re the records on this list least likely to be broken. They’re also the most era-dependent, which is why they land in the No. 5 spot.
Let’s start with the 2007 Sacramento Monarchs. As noted last week, offensive rebounding rates have trended downward through the league’s history as teams prioritized transition defense over second-chance opportunities. It’s been more than a dozen years since a team even grabbed at least 35% of its own misses over a full season, so let’s just say you’re more likely to experience a stress-free drive through Boston during rush hour than see this record be broken.
Still, let’s give credit where credit is due. We’re talking about a Monarchs starting lineup that featured Rebekkah Brunson and Yolanda Griffith – Brunson is the W’s all-time leader in career offensive rebounds and Griffith clocks in at No. 4. And like we discussed last week, Sacramento’s 39.1% offensive rebounding rate exceeded the league average by 8.5 percentage points, still a WNBA record.
And then there’s the 2001 Cleveland Rockers, whose stingy defense propelled it to a 22-10 record and first place in the East. Unfortunately for Cleveland fans, defense doesn’t always win championships, and the Charlotte Sting upset the Rockers in the first round. The silver lining for the Dan Hughes-led squad is that its 55.9 points allowed per game is a record that might as well be carved in stone. After all, teams have scored 17 more points per game this season than they did in 2001. The 2001 Rockers held teams to below 50 points on 10 occasions; a team has failed to hit 50 points only once since 2016.
No. 4: Sylvia Fowles’ career field-goal percentage of 59.9%
Sylvia Fowles holds the WNBA record for career field-goal percentage at 59.9%. A paragon of consistency, Fowles dipped below 58% just three times in her 15-year career. Further, only nine times in WNBA history has a player shot at least 60% over a full season (minimum 150 field goals made); Fowles owns five of those seasons.
Just four players not named Sylvia Fowles have shot 60% from the field over a full season (minimum 150 field goals made), so do we really expect someone to maintain that accuracy over an entire career? Perhaps Aliyah Boston. The Rookie of the Year favorite is off to a great start, shooting 60.1% from the field so far this season. Still, it’s going to take a special, dare I say, Hall of Fame career for anyone to overtake Fowles’ milestone of shooting efficiency.
No. 3: Tamika Catchings’ 1,073 career steals
DeWanna Bonner is the leader in career steals among active WNBA players with 547. That’s spectacular. It’s also barely halfway to Tamika Catchings’ record. How about this: Catchings is 310 steals clear of No. 2 on the list, Ticha Penicheiro. That’s more than the difference between Penicheiro and No. 29, Rebekkah Brunson.
Granted, steals per game have trended downward in recent seasons, making it all the more difficult to have a prayer of touching this record. But even after controlling for the fact that Catchings played during seasons with more live-ball turnovers, the five-time Defensive Player of the Year’s ability to rack up steals is remarkable.
How hard will it be to catch Catch? Sue Bird played a league record 580 regular-season games during her career. If someone else played that long, they would need to average roughly 1.85 steals per contest. Only five players in WNBA history have averaged 1.85 steals over their entire career (minimum 100 games); the most recent is Angel McCoughtry.
No. 2: Sloot’s 10 assists per game in the Wubble
It took a perfect storm of the league’s career leader in assists per game, a shortened season, and a stat correction to make this possible. That’s not intended as a slight to Courtney Vandersloot; it’s an indication of the difficulty involved in averaging double-digit assists in a season.
Pop quiz: how many times has a player averaged even eight assists per game over a full season? Over the league’s 26 completed regular seasons, it’s happened six times, five by Courtney Vandersloot. Sloot herself has exceeded nine assists per game in a non-Wubble season just once. Even in an era when assist rates league-wide are through the roof, it’s hard to envision a player maintaining that level of production over a 40-game season.
No. 1: Houston’s 4-peat
A dynasty that defined the league’s nascent years takes the top spot.
Half a decade of dominance. That’s what it would take to break the Houston Comets’ record of four consecutive WNBA titles. To help put that accomplishment into perspective, how many franchises have successfully defended their WNBA title? Two - Houston and Los Angeles. And it hasn’t happened in more than 20 years.
And those Comets teams were good. Scary good. Their big three consisted of three-time MVP and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Sheryl Swoopes, two-time MVP and four-time Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper, and the league’s all-time leading scorer (from 2010-2017) Tina Thompson. Remember last week we discussed how the Comets have the single-season record for margin per 100 possessions? They actually own the top two spots on that list and three of the top seven. From 1998-2000, the Comets went 81-13, winning an absurd 86% of their games over a three-season span.
Despite such an impressive regular-season resume, the best team doesn’t always win in the chaos that’s the playoffs. Houston almost learned that lesson the hard way in 1998, down 1-0 to Phoenix in the best-of-three Finals and trailing by 12 with 7:24 left in Game 2, and again in 1999 after Teresa Weatherspoon’s half-court heave sent the Finals to a decisive Game 3. Houston bounced back and won the title in each case, but it demonstrates just how thin the margin is between a single championship or two and a dynasty.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
I can't get over the 10,000 point record for Diana Taurasi! Wow!