Former Mercury Star Breaks Record Held By Diana Taurasi

On Wednesday night, the Connecticut Sun’s Tina Charles led her team with 19 points in a lopsided road loss to the Chicago Sky, moving Connecticut to second-to-last in the WNBA standings.

She was only one of two Sun players in double figures, as she shot an efficient 8-for-13 from the field. Charles, the WNBA’s all-time second-leading scorer, pulled ahead of league legend Diana Taurasi and is now the all-time leader in made field goals.

She has now racked up 3,347 made shots in her storied career, surpassing Taurasi’s 3,341. She’s been remarkably consistent doing it, too. Charles has been in the league since 2010 and has scored at least 14.8 points per game in every one of her pro seasons, including two years when she averaged more than 20 a night.

What’s remarkable about her scoring record, and about her being second all-time in points, is that she’s done so despite not being especially prolific from three (she’s made 197, 1,250 fewer than Taurasi) and not relying on a ton of free throws (she has more than 900 fewer makes than DT).

Charles is something of an old-school scorer, one who seemingly has a solution for every defensive coverage you can throw at her. She’s the only player in the top five all-time in points who has shot 45% or better from the field. She’s tall, standing 6’4″, but doesn’t have a size advantage on many nights. Her deft touch and array of moves and counters allow her to score efficiently against nearly any matchup and her game has aged well as the years have gone on.

While Charles is known more for her time with the Sun, the franchise with whom she won MVP back in 2012, and where she plays again now, and with the New York Liberty, she also spent a brief stint with the Phoenix Mercury.

The Mercury acquired her in 2022 and she scored 17.3 a night in purple and orange, but things didn’t work out between player and team, and she wound up spending the back half of the season in Seattle. She was the second-leading scorer for a Phoenix team that wound up barely making the playoffs and getting swept in the first round by the Las Vegas Aces.

Charles has shown this season that, even at age 36, she has plenty of quality hoops left. She might put some real distance between herself and second place before she retires. She’s still her team’s leading scorer, and she’s getting buckets just like she always has.

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