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The WNBA, founded in 1997, has quickly established itself as the pinnacle of professional women’s basketball in the United States, creating its own identity and spotlighting incredible talent apart from the NBA. Over its relatively short history, the league has seen legends come and go—including arguably the greatest center in WNBA history, Sylvia Fowles, who retired in 2022. A two-time champion and four-time Defensive Player of the Year, Fowles led the league in field goal percentage nine times—including an astounding streak of five consecutive seasons and ranks fourth all-time in blocked shots.

Remarkably, Fowles dominated the paint while standing “only” 6’6″ in basketball shoes, which got us wondering: who are the tallest players to ever set foot on a WNBA court? How has height impacted success at the highest level of women’s basketball? And does towering size guarantee dominance, or are skill and agility equally important? As always, we dug into the data to create a definitive list for anyone curious about the giants of the WNBA.

The 25 Tallest WNBA Players of All-Time

To level-set, the average height of a woman is approximately 3-5 inches shorter than the average height of a man in the same country and that is true worldwide according to World Data. So it comes as no surprise to us that WNBA players are shorter on average than NBA players (by approximately 7 inches). And even fewer WNBA players reach the seven foot threshold. That all holds true for our list of the tallest WNBA players in the history of the league. Here are the WNBA’s tallest players of all time:

1. Margo Dydek, 7-2

The WNBA’s tallest player was Margo Dydek. Every player mentioned in this article has tall girl problems, but there’s one player that had the biggest issues. The one and only seven-foot player that has ever played in an WNBA game is the late, great Margo Dydek. In fact, the Polish center stood two inches taller than the seven foot mark. The 7-2 pivot was drafted with the #1 overall pick in the 1998 WNBA draft, and makes our list as one of 50 greatest WNBA players of all-time. And Dydek is four inches taller than the the next tallest players.

2. Bernadett Hatar and Han Xu, 6-10

The next tallest players are Hungarian center Bernadett Hatar and 6-10 Han Xu. Hadar had a short WNBA career having played just seven games in the W before getting injured in her inaugural season in 2021. She hasn’t hit the WNBA courts since then. Han Xu on the other hand is a promising backup center for the New York Liberty. The Chinese center has a high ceiling with her ability to run the floor and mid-range game.

4. Brittney Griner, 6-9

Perhaps the most well-known WNBA player of 2022 due to her protracted illegal detention in Russia, Griner was a big name in the WNBA before becoming an unfortunate political prisoner.  The fourth tallest player in the history of the WNBA is the most well-known and that’s Brittney Griner.

The 6-9 Griner made dunking a regular occurrence in the league, has been named to several WNBA all-star games, and was included as one of the league’s 25 greatest players.  At 6-9 Griner is the only WNBA player at this height in the history of the league and that was good enough to be the tallest player in the WNBA for eight consecutive season (2013-2020).

5. Brcaninovic, Cambage, Firsova, Mattera, Stepanova, Taylor, and Zheng, 6-8

We’d continue naming off players, but at the next spot has seven WNBA 6-foot, 8-inch players tied for fifth tallest player ever. Right below the 6-9 Griner are several players that clock in at 6-8 including Australian baller Liz Cambage, Russian hooper Maria Stepanova and the tallest player in the first year of the WNBA Chinese center Haixia Zheng.  This list includes little known players in Katie Mattera, Olga Firsova, Razija Brcaninovic, and Lindsay Taylor.

Here’s the full list of tallest WNBA players in the history of the league.

So the eleven seasons that Dydek played in the WNBA, she was the tallest player. Here’s a breakdown of the tallest players for every WNBA season:

When talking about dunking, height is important, but isn’t the only factor. The size of one’s hands, their vertical leap, their wingspan, and being in the right place, right time to take a pass also influences how often a player dunks.

As for where the 6-6 Fowles stands among her peers? Though measuring 6-6 is still tall for the WNBA (and relatively rare), Fowles is not considered one of the tallest and doesn’t even crack the top 20. As expected, as heights get “shorter” there are more and more players at that height. She joins approximately twenty other players that are reach 6-foot-6 in height (198cm).

WNBA fans should know the tallest players in WNBA history are often much shorter than their NBA counterparts while others may find excitement in exploring foreign casinos with exciting game selections for something different.

Source: WNBA

At this height, there are exactly 19 players that measure 6-6 and that’s the exact number of players above that are taller than 6-6 (19) in the history of the entire league. All in all, there have been 38 players that have been 6-6 or taller since the first WNBA game tipped off. Several WNBA greats including Fowles and Lauren Jackson as well as 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones are 6-6. And right below those three are future Hall Of Famers and WNBA legends 6-5 Lisa Leslie, Elena Baranova and Elena Delle Donne. Candace Parker and Breanna Stewart are both 6-4 and a part of the WNBA 25.