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14 October 2025  5 min read

WNBA Hall of Famer and female role model Sylvia Fowles making a real-life impact

She’s an eight-time WNBA All-Star, won Defensive Player of the Year four times, was crowned WNBA champ twice with the Minnesota Lynx and won four Olympic gold medals with Team USA, as well as winning the EuroLeague twice with Spartak Moscow.

Before her investiture, she travelled to Manchester in August to attend the UK’s first ever NBA and FIBA Basketball Without Borders event.

The week-long camp hosted at the National Basketball Performance Centre saw 60 of Europe’s best high-school-aged athletes put through their paces by legends of the game, including Fowles, who was on hand to coach the seven British players invited to the showcase, as well inspiring girls aged 7-14 at a session of Her Time To Play, the NBA and WNBA’s girls’ basketball initiative.

Known as this generation’s greatest number five – no less by her former LSU coach Bob Starkey, with whom she took LSU to the NCAA Final Four four times – the 6”6’ centre’s stat line sees her second in the League’s all-time rebound list, fourth in blocks and she tops the charts with a 59% field goal percentage.

Pretty good credentials for passing on knowledge to the next generation, here and elsewhere; GB's very own Temi Fágbénlé, who was Fowles' teammate with the Lynx from 2017-19, called her a 'source of guidance'. 

Speaking to Basketball England, the 40-year-old had a message to British girls and young women who find themselves doing the hard work in the key.

“[My message is] understand the angles. Everybody thinks a centre is just somebody who wants [the contact] all the time. But it’s basically just about understanding angles and applying mental control. If someone’s going to guard you one way, go the other, just play mental games because at the end of the day nobody's going to stop you,” said Fowles.

Sylvia Fowles won four Olympic gold medals with Team USA. fiba.basketball

‘Ugly behaviour comes from your greatness’

The WNBA has been enjoying a surge in popularity in recent years, as digital media has increased access and exposure for its high-profile stars, while key rivalries have intensified and more coverage via traditional media channels have meant bigger audiences tuning in.

It has come at a cost though with the League having to unveil a ‘No Space For Hate’ campaign to challenge the poisonous misogynistic messages and behaviour the players and teams have been subjected to, especially over social media.

Fowles says that the ugly behaviour comes as an unwelcome by-product of women’s greatness.

“It comes with it," she added. "I think when you're really good at your job, you're going to always have somebody trying to tear you down and tell you are not good enough, or telling you don't fit in the space, or you're not worthy. It comes with anything, not just sport. You can experience some of those things in the workplace.

“Understand that it comes with greatness, and if you weren’t that great, people wouldn't troll. It can be overwhelming if you take it the wrong way, and you are constantly reading the negative things, but nobody understands the time that you put in, how hard you study, how hard you have to play or watch film, or the extra hours in the gym and so I would just say, block it out.”

Fowles at Basketball Without Borders in Manchester delivering a Her Time to Play clinic

What are all the things I can accomplish in this lifetime

In a recent interview with Women’s Health (US), Fowles expressed that basketball has been the vehicle that has prepared her for the real world.

The sport hasn’t been the ‘be all and end all’ of her existence.

Quite the contrary, she’s keen to press the point that she's multi-faceted and has a range of interests from meditation, knitting, baking bread, and is currently studying to become a mortician – an interest that was sparked after her grandmother passed away.

She says that when she was growing up it felt like society was telling her she needed to focus on just one thing. But the guidance and messaging she received from her mum was that she could do anything that she wanted.

Something she remains resolute about.

“Coming from my mum [the messaging was] I can do anything I want to do," she said. "And the outside world was like ‘you need to focus on one thing and one thing only’.

“I’m good at everything I do, and I wanted to home in on that and let people know we're multifaceted humans; we can do whatever we put our mind to. But also, too, basketball was just a gateway for me to get to wherever I wanted to get. So, the luxury of basketball is it opens doors and takes you places that you never could have imagined. So, when I tell people what I do, I want them to know that you can do pretty much anything you want to do, just let basketball take you to wherever you want to go.

“From a young age, I knew that our life cycle is short. So, when you think about it that way, it's like what are all the things that I can accomplish in this lifetime without being fearful, with being bold, and being authentically myself. How can I make an impact in a way that can reach everybody, not just a few people? That's why I try to do different things. I'm trying to reach as many people as possible. I want to make a real-life impact.”

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