Tina Charles makes WNBA history and calls Diana Taurasi the GOAT

WNBA History was made Tuesday night in Atlanta when Dream center Tina Charles passed Tina Thompson for second place on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. She achieved the milestone in a game against the league’s all-time leading scorer, Diana Taurasi, and after the game declared Taurasi the greatest of all time.

Charles, an eight-time All-Star and one-time MVP, entered Wednesday’s matchup with the Mercurys with 7,479 career points and needed eight more to pass Thompson.

She ultimately hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter of the Dream’s 72-63 win over the Mercury and finished with 12 points, 17 rebounds and three assists.

Charles currently ranks second to Taurasi on the career scoring list, but Taurasi has 10,497 career points, so it will be years before the 35-year-old Charles surpasses her. It certainly doesn’t help that at 42, Taurasi is still averaging 16.2 points and showing little sign of slowing down.

The historic moment was made even more special by the fact that Charles and Taurasi are both University of Connecticut graduates and longtime friends.

“I can’t imagine my name ever being in the same sentence as Diana,” Charles said on the broadcast, “and her impact on me and this league and what she’s had, she’s the GOAT, hands down.”

The win marked three straight wins over playoff teams, beating the Storm, Sun and Mercury since the Olympic break to improve to 10-17 on the year. Atlanta is now one game behind the Sky for the eighth and final playoff spot, and overtaking Chicago is certainly within reach given the fact that the Sky traded for Marina Mabry, the team’s second-leading scorer, over the break.

“We’re just united,” Charles said. [Howard] Jordan [Canada] “It’s really great to have her back in the lineup. We have a future MVP candidate and we have a point guard who takes his job seriously of keeping the team together — a leader on the team.”