Dream weaver

Women's Basketball, Oct 2003 by Elfman, Lois

"To me, Tamika has this pie that's sliced up, and every piece has a goal on it," says Fever coach Nell Fortner. "She looks at the pie every day and goes, 'OK, here's another one I got. There are four over there that I've still got to work for.' She's so goal-driven. It's a really neat thing, but she's incredibly humble about all of it."

Catchings' basketball life began in a simple yet extraordinary way - her father, Harvey Catchings, played in the NBA.

"I did start playing basketball because of my dad - always going to the gym and going to practice," she says. "I loved to be around him, and I loved to be around the game."

By the third grade she was on an organized team. Her older brother, Kenyon, was also an avid player. Older sister Tauja, while enormously talented, simply followed the family trend.

"She played because I wanted to play," Catchings says. "It got to a point as we got older where we would trade time. I would play Barbie dolls with her for an hour, and she would play basketball with me for an hour.

"I loved to play basketball, so it wasn't a point of me wanting to do anything or play anything else," she continues.

Catchings, 24, admits her early life was a bit sheltered, as virtually everyone she knew had a connection to the NBA. When his U.S. pro career came to a close, Harvey Catchings played a season in Italy, and then the family returned home to Chicago to start a new life.

"That's when we started to realize there's life outside of basketball," she says. "We'd tell our friends, 'Our dad used to play in the NBA.' It was like they were in awe. We didn't understand it at the time."

In the seventh grade, Catchings started to plot her own future.

"That's when I made the decision I was going to play professional basketball," she states. "I was like, 'I'm going to get at least a tryout with the NBA. By the time I'm out of college, I should be able to play with the guys.' That was my dream."

But in accordance with the motto "dreams do come true, but they don't come easy," Catchings had some challenges to deal with. Her parents divorced. Sensing her mother, Wanda, was unhappy and wanted to move from Chicago to the Dallas area, where her family lived, she offered to make the move with her. It was the summer before her junior year of high school. Brother Kenyon was already in college, and sister Tauja was entering her senior year of high school, thus making a move for her nearly impossible.

"One day I just came home and I said, 'Mom, I'm ready to move,'" Catchings recalls. "She had talked about it a little bit, but she never said, 'We're going to move.' She wanted it to be my decision. She asked, 'Are you sure? Think about it.' I was like, 'I've already thought about it. I'm ready to go.'

"I was on an AAU team, and AAU Nationals were in Texas that year," she adds. "We went down for AAU and started looking for a place to live."

While she was steadfast in her desire to be there for her mother, the move was traumatic. Catchings is hearing impaired and she felt somewhat isolated from other people. She often forged her connection with others via Tauja.

"Before we moved to Texas, I never really talked to anybody," she says. "I never had my own friends. My freshmen year in high school, my brother was a senior and my sister was a sophomore. We were all at the same school together. My friends were his friends or her friends. I didn't have anybody in my grade, other than one person, that I used to hang out with. Tauja was our spokesperson. Somebody would ask me a question, Tauja would answer. If I had to go somewhere, Tauja had to go somewhere.

"When I moved to Texas, I had to start over," she continues. "I had to be by myself. I had to do things on my own. It was something that I accepted."

Easing the way was basketball. Not only did her high school team appreciate her prolific contributions, but also numerous college coaches came calling. The letters - which Catchings carefully catalogued - filled two large bins.

"I had an idea where I wanted to go, but I wanted to be real open and look at a lot of different schools," she says. "Once I started narrowing my list down, I started writing letters to coaches to let them know, 'Thank you for looking at me but unfortunately I'm not interested.'

"I wanted it to be a good school academically. I wanted to play for the best coach. I wanted to play alongside players who could play. Those were the three main things I looked at."

She considered Illinois, where Tauja was, but ultimately chose the University of Tennessee. When she got there, she found out what it means to play for Pat Summitt.

"Up until my first day of practice, I had never had anybody tell me that I was doing anything wrong," Catchings says. "They might make suggestions but never said I was doing something wrong. The first day of practice, Pat said, 'You're playing defense wrong.' At the time I was thinking, I can't believe I'm about to spend four years of my life here. But that was the best decision I could make."

Indeed, her freshman year was electrifying. The team, which also included Chamique Holdsclaw and Semeka Randall, won a National Championship.