One of the greatest basketball players in the history of the sport in Indiana, Tamika Catchings, is having a family member come back to the state.
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Catchings was a WNBA superstar for the Indiana Fever, and now her nephew Kanon Catchings is heading back to the state. The Purdue Boilermakers announced on X that Kanon had committed to play for them as a top commitment for their 2024 recruiting class.
✍️ SIGNED
✅: Kanon Catchings
📍: Brownsburg, Indiana
🏀: @OvertimeElite / @indyheatgymrats
📏: 6-9 Forward📝: Ranked No. 22 by 247Sports, Catchings is one of the highest-ranked recruits of the Painter era.
FOLLOW ➡️ @kanoncatchings pic.twitter.com/S0X5PG1npY
— Purdue Men's Basketball (@BoilerBall) November 8, 2023
Catchings is a 4-star recruit and the No. 22 recruit in the country for the 2024 class, according to 247Sports. While he had originally played high school basketball in the state at Brownsburg, Kanon left this summer to play for Overtime Elite for a season before heading to college. At 6'8" and 185 pounds, the young forward has plenty of time to fill out and become a legitimate contributor for a Purdue program that has consistently competed for Big Ten titles under head coach Matt Painter.
Kanon will have big shoes to fill in order to live up to the legacy of his aunt. Tamika Catchings spent her entire WNBA career with the Fever from 2002 through 2016, and her list of accolades includes leading the team to their first WNBA title in 2012 while wining Finals MVP in the process. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2001 WNBA Draft, Catchings finished her career with 10 All-Star selections, 12 All-WNBA selections, five WNBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, four Olympic gold medals, and an MVP selection in 2011.
Along with all of those accolades, Catchings also left the league as the WNBA's all-time steals leader while holding playoff records for all-time points, rebounds, and steals.
Although other top midwest schools including Indiana, Xavier, and Illinois were interested in her nephew, Kanon is now going to forge his own legacy for the Boilermakers. If he can come even close to racking up the accolades that his aunt produced in the WNBA, then he'd eventually be a no-doubt Hall of Fame player.
