Tamika Catchings named the 2011 WNBA Most Valuable Player
From the league:
Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings has been named the 2011 WNBA Most Valuable Player, the WNBA announced today. Catchings received 292 points (21 first place votes) from a national panel of 40 sportswriters and broadcasters.
Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles finished second with 209 points (six first-place votes) and Chicago Sky center Sylvia Fowles finished third with 148 points (six). Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird finished fourth with 106 points (two) and Minnesota Lynx guard Lindsay Whalen finished fifth with 104 points (four).
In her 10th season, all with the Fever, Catchings captured her first MVP Award after finishing among the top three in balloting five times and among the top five in eight different seasons. She was the runner-up in 2003, 2009 and 2010.
This season Catchings led the Fever to the top seed in the Eastern Conference, averaging 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals. The only member of the Fever to lead the team in points, rebounds and assists in the same game, Catchings did so three times. She recorded four double-doubles, and grabbed at least 10 rebounds six times during the 2011 campaign. She shot a career-high .883 from the free throw line and converted .438 of her field goal attempts, the second best percentage of her career. Currently the league’s all-time career steals leader (775), Catchings, who has been voted WNBA Defensive Player of the Year a league-leading four times, was the top vote-getter in this year’s All-Star balloting for the third time in her career.
