WNBA all-time leading scorers: Tina Charles shares moment with Diana Taurasi after becoming league's No. 2 scorer

Jacob Camenker

WNBA all-time leading scorers: Tina Charles shares moment with Diana Taurasi after becoming league's No. 2 scorer image

Tina Charles entered Wednesday needing just 10 points to move into second place on the WNBA's all-time scoring list.

The Atlanta Dream star accomplished that goal, notching 12 points and 17 rebounds in her team's 72-63 win over the Phoenix Mercury.

Charles' record-breaking bucket came early in the fourth quarter. She was standing at the 3-point line when her teammates corraled an offensive rebound and kicked it out to her.

The 35-year-old nailed the wide-open shot.

Fittingly, Charles' bucket came against Phoenix. The Mercury are led by Diana Taurasi, a 20-year WNBA veteran who is, far and away, the league's all-time leading scorer. She was Charles' college teammate at UConn and the duo briefly reunited in Phoenix during the 2022 season.

The two shared a warm embrace after a timeout was called to honor Charles' achievement.

Charles was also swarmed by her Dream teammates and received a raucous ovation from the crowd on hand in College Park.

That left her feeling "a whole bunch of gratitude" about her achievement after she spent the 2023 season out of the league.

"I thought I was done playing last year," Charles said, per ESPN. "So for me to be here right now is just really special."

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WNBA all-time scoring leaders

Second place is almost certainly the highest honor Charles can earn on the WNBA's all-time scoring list.

Taurasi is more than 3,000 points ahead of Charles and remains the only player in the W's history to score more than 10,000 points. The 20-year veteran has 10,500 points on the nose as of Thursday, Aug. 22.

The Connecticut Sun's DeWanna Bonner, 37, is within striking distance of Charles, sitting just 164 points off her pace at No. 5 overall. The New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart is the youngest player among the top 25 scorers, as the 29-year-old has racked up 5,158 points so far during her WNBA career.

Below is a look at the WNBA's top scorers of all time as of Thursday, Aug. 22, with active players listed in bold.

RankPlayerPoints
1Diana Taurasi10,500
2Tina Charles7,491
3Tina Thompson*7,488
4Tamika Catchings*7,380
5DeWanna Bonner7,327
6Candice Dupree6,895
7Cappie Pondexter6,811
8Sue Bird6,803
9Candace Parker6,574
10Katie Smith*6,452
11Sylvia Fowles6,415
12Nneka Ogwumike6,320
13Lisa Leslie*6,263
14Seimone Augustus*6,005
 Lauren Jackson*6,005
16Becky Hammon*5,841
17Angel McCoughtry5,797
18DeLisha Milton-Jones5,571
19Katie Douglas5,560
20Lindsay Whalen*5,523
21Brittney Griner5,382
22Jewell Loyd5,375
23Breanna Stewart5,158
24Swin Cash*5,119
25Tangela Smith5,046

Denotes a Basketball Hall of Famer.

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WNBA scoring leaders 2024

Two of the WNBA's all-time scoring leaders — Stewart and Loyd — are among the WNBA's most prolific scorers of the 2024 season. They rank within the top six in total points scored, while Bonner checks in at 13th and Nneka Ogwumike at 16th.

RankPlayerTeamPoints
1A'ja WilsonAces726
2Kahleah CopperMercury670
3Arike OgunbowaleWings572
4Jewell LoydStorm568
5Sabrina IonescuLiberty537
6Breanna StewartLiberty516
7Dearica HambySparks504
8Caitlin ClarkFever497
9Kelsey MitchellFever495
10Kelsey PlumAces492
11Napheesa CollierLynx470
12Jackie YoungAces465
13DeWanna BonnerSun446
14Ariel AtkinsMystics443
 Kayla McBrideLynx443
16Chennedy CarterSky437
 Nneka OgwumikeStorm437
18Jonquel JonesLiberty425
19Allisha GrayDream423
20Aliyah BostonFever393

The overall list doesn't change much when looking at points per game instead of total points, but Taurasi cracks the top 20 on the per-game list for 2024, averaging 15.7 points across 25 games. Her teammate Brittney Griner also makes a big jump, as Griner has played in just 19 games as of this writing.

RankPlayerTeamPoints
1A'ja WilsonAces26.9
2Kahleah CopperMercury23.1
3Arike OgunbowaleWings22.0
4Napheesa CollierLynx20.4
5Jewell LoydStorm20.3
6Sabrina IonescuLiberty19.9
7Breanna StewartLiberty19.8
8Kelsey PlumAces18.2
9Brittney GrinerMercury18.1
10Dearica HambySparks18.0
11Jackie YoungAces17.9
12Caitlin ClarkFever17.8
13Kelsey MitchellFever17.7
14Nneka OgwumikeStorm17.5
15Chennedy CarterSky16.8
16DeWanna BonnerSun16.5
17Rhyne HowardDream16.3
18Ariel AtkinsMystics15.8
 Kayla McBrideLynx15.8
20Diana TaurasiMercury15.7

Wilson seems likely to lead the WNBA in scoring for the 2024 season, but she won't quite crack 5,000 career points yet. She will have a shot to do so during the 2025 campaign — provided that she can stay healthy.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.