With Rebounding Record, Fowles Adds To Hall Of Fame Career

The list of accolades Sylvia Fowles has collected in her 13 seasons in the WNBA seems neverending.

Most Valuable Player? Yep.

Finals MVP? Twice.

Olympic gold medals? Three of them.

Defensive Player of the Year? 2011, 2013, and 2016.

All-Star appearances? You can’t even count her six on one hand.

On Tuesday night against the Seattle Storm, Fowles added the title “WNBA All-Time Rebounds Leader” to her impressive career that will undoubtedly end up immortalized at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Unlike the aforementioned accomplishments, Tuesday’s feat took the entirety of Fowles’ career to this point to attain. Her 3,357th career rebound to pass former Minnesota Lynx frontcourt partner and current Assistant Coach Rebekkah Brunson just before halftime was the result of a lifetime of battling against her four older siblings that turned her into one of the WNBA’s most dominant centers of all-time.

“It still feels surreal at this moment,” Fowles said after the 90-66 loss to the Seattle Storm. “I’m thinking I’ll have time to soak it in tomorrow and appreciate all of the work that I’ve put in over the last 13 years.”

Fowles continued: “A lot of it is credit to my older siblings never giving me the opportunity to play on offense, so I credit myself on defense because that’s the only thing that I could do growing up. It kinda just trickled over into my professional career.”

Brunson made her way to centercourt at halftime to award Fowles with that game ball following her record-breaking seventh rebound of the game. The moment was not only meaningful between the two stalwarts that helped the Lynx to WNBA championships in 2015 and 2017, but the overall triumph of the Lynx franchise under Head Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve over the past decade.

“I’m just really proud of Syl,” Reeve said postgame. “The fact that I could be a witness to so many rebounds, and how valuable she’s been to our franchise. To pass Rebekkah Brunson, it’s just a special moment for the franchise.

“We’ve had two of the greatest of all-time.”