Candace Parker, Amar’e Stoudemire and Doc Rivers headline a nine-member class that has been selected for induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame next August.
The threesome will be joined by Elena Delle Donne, Mark Few, Joey Crawford, Chamique Holdsclaw, Mike D’Antoni and the 1996 United States Women’s National Team in the Class of 2026, the Hall of Fame announced Saturday. Some were dominant forces on the court and pioneers of their sport, while the coaches maintained remarkable levels of sustained success for over two decades each.
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Here are their stories.
Candace Parker (player)
WNBA player (2008–2023), three-time WNBA champion, seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time WNBA MVP, two-time NCAA champion
The list of accolades only begins to scratch the surface of the indelible resume Parker built in her basketball career. Parker was the best player at every stage she played.
She was the best high school player in the country in Illinois, twice winning USA Today High School Player of the Year (2003 and 2004). Her high school years were also when she first drew acclaim for her athleticism. She is believed to be the first woman in Illinois to dunk in a basketball game, doing so at just 15 years old.
It was an omen of just how head and shoulders above the competition she would be for the rest of her career.
Parkler’s dominance continued in her three seasons under legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee (2005-08). The 6-foot-4 forward averaged 19.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per night. She won two national championships (2007 and 2008) and was an All-American all three years in college. In both national title runs, Parker was the Most Outstanding Player. Summitt, a Naismith Hall of Famer herself, was quick to sing the praises of Parker during her college career.
“Candace Parker is the best player in the women’s game,” Summitt said in 2008. “There has been a lot of questions or suggestions about who is the best player. My comment on that is, the big question should be, who is the best player in the world? Is it Candace Parker or is it Lauren Jackson?”
At the time, Jackson was a WNBA center who had already won two of her three MVP awards.
Parker’s brilliance only continued in the WNBA. Drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008, Parker became the first WNBA player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. In 2016, she won the first of her three championships. She was still nearly averaging a double-double (14.7 points and 9.7 rebounds) in her 12th WNBA season in 2020 for the Sparks. She won Defensive Player of the Year that season before leaving for her hometown Chicago Sky in 2021, where she immediately won her second title. She finished with three championships overall and made four WNBA Finals.
In 2016, at just 30 years old, Parker was named to the WNBA’s list of 20 greatest players ever, and remained on the Top 25 list in 2021. Her impact on the Sparks, as well as the WNBA and basketball as a whole, was widely recognized across the sport. Her jersey has been retired by Tennessee, Los Angeles and Chicago.
“Candace Parker has left an indelible mark on the Los Angeles Sparks,” Magic Johnson wrote on Twitter after Parker’s jersey retirement. “Not only as one of the greatest players to ever grace the court, but as a true ambassador of our franchise and women’s basketball as a whole.” — Devon Henderson, staff writer
Mark Few (coach)
Gonzaga head coach (1999-present), 773 wins, 2017 AP Coach of the Year, two Final Fours, two championship game appearances
In his 27 seasons and counting at Gonzaga, Few has transformed the Bulldogs from an obscure mid-major men’s basketball program into a national power. His impact was immediate, leading the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 in each of his first two seasons (2000 and 2001) as one of two head coaches to accomplish that feat since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Since then, Few has become synonymous with winning. His Gonzaga teams have won the WCC Tournament championship 21 times and have made the NCAA Tournament in all 27 seasons, clinching an automatic bid in 2020 before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. The Bulldogs made the NCAA title game in 2017 and 2021, but lost both times.
His winning percentage (.832) is the highest in NCAA history for coaches with more than 600 games. He is the only coach to win eight or more consecutive conference championships twice and owns a host of WCC and Gonzaga wins records.
He currently ranks 19th in career wins, just one spot ahead of 2016 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Tom Izzo. Few will be the fifth active Division I coach to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He has coached 19 NBA Draft picks during his tenure. — Henderson
Amar’e Stoudemire (player)
NBA (2002-2016), 6x NBA All-Star, 5x All-NBA Selection, 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year
One of the game’s highest flyers has now landed in the Hall. It didn’t always appear that destiny was assured for the power forward. Stoudemire didn’t start playing organized basketball until he was 14, and through various moves and eligibility complications, he only ended up playing two years of high school basketball. His senior season was enough, however, to be drafted directly into the NBA after he averaged 29.1 points, 15 rebounds, 6.1 blocked shots and 2.1 steals per game for Cypress Creek High School in Orlando.
Stoudemire was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the No. 9 pick in the 2002 draft and spent the first eight years of his career there. The 6-foot-10 forward made an immediate impact his rookie year, averaging 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds for the burgeoning Suns, and became the first prep-to-pro player to be named Rookie of the Year in 2003. He later became one half of a superstar duo with two-time MVP point guard and 2018 Hall of Fame inductee Steve Nash on the famed “Seven Seconds or Less” Suns. Two of his three seasons averaging more than 25 points per game came in Phoenix. In the Suns’ 2005 run to the Western Conference finals, Stoudemire averaged just under 30 points and 11 rebounds through 15 playoff games.
Stoudemire became known as one of the hardest dunkers in the game, but was also a skilled midrange shooter with deft footwork.
“This guy made my life so fun,” Steve Nash told PHNX Sports in 2024. “Every night, getting the chance to find him on the break, find him on the pick-and-roll, play in the half-court with him, just an incredible, incredible player. I think we’ve all seen him dunk on people, and we’ve all seen him tear the rim off, but I think what people don’t always understand is the dynamism of an athlete at 6-foot-10 that he possesses. Out of this world.”
In 2010, Stoudemire signed with the New York Knicks in free agency and was later joined by Carmelo Anthony in a midseason trade. In 2010-11, he again averaged over 25, pouring in 25.3 points per game for New York. That season represented the last of his six NBA All-Star selections and five All-NBA selections. Stoudemire’s NBA career — he also played a few seasons overseas — ended in 2016 after 14 seasons. He finished with career averages of 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds. — Henderson
Doc Rivers (coach)
NBA Coach (1999-present), 2008 NBA Champion, 2000 NBA Coach of the Year, sixth in career wins by an NBA coach
In Rivers’ 13-season playing career with the Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs from 1983-96, he was a one-time NBA All-Star in 1988 with Atlanta.
It was as a head coach that he built his legacy. He’s won 1,192 games and counting in 27 seasons as an NBA head coach with the Orlando Magic (1999-2003), Boston Celtics (2004-13), Los Angeles Clippers (2013-20), Philadelphia 76ers (2020-23) and Milwaukee Bucks (2023-present). He is currently sixth on the career wins list for NBA head coaches. He was the only member in the top 10 not yet in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rivers won Coach of the Year in his first season coaching Orlando and led them to the playoffs three of his four years there. By 2004, Rivers had made his way to Boston. In 2008, he led the Celtics to a 36-win turnaround, tied for the most ever season-to-season in NBA history. He took Boston all the way to the NBA Finals, winning the title in six games over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Rivers had a star-studded roster, including three future Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
“Doc is probably one of the more intelligent people I’ve ever met,” Garnett said on the Bucks YouTube channel in 2025. “Always coming up with quotes, always having things in the chamber that he hits you with. One of the, if not the best, inspirational coaches I’ve ever been around. He is a special type of coach.”
Rivers brought the Celtics back to the Finals in 2010, again against the Lakers, but this time fell in seven games.
In 2013, Rivers became the coach of the famed “Lob City” Clippers, reviving a long-struggling franchise into a Western Conference power with stars Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. The Clippers averaged 54 wins per year from 2013 to 2017 after having just one 50-win season in the previous 43 years of the franchise’s existence, dating back to its days as the Buffalo Braves.
All told, Rivers has made the playoffs in 21 of his 27 seasons.
“It would mean the world to me,” Rivers told reporters Tuesday in Milwaukee when asked about potentially getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. “I’ve done a lot, the numbers are the numbers. But it’s not, I swear, it’s not why I got into this. It’s the relationships, it’s the people. From the day that I was nominated, the calls, I can’t tell you. It’s in the hundreds, the player calls. And some of the calls have been amazing because I thought they didn’t like me anymore. You have falling outs with players, and you don’t ever worry about it; it’s just part of it as a coach. It’s been amazing that they have reached out, and it’s made me feel really good about just doing what I do. It’s been great.” — Henderson
Elena Delle Donne (player)
NCAA leading scorer (2012), WNBA Rookie of the Year (2013), WNBA MVP (2015, 2019), WNBA champion (2019)
Before becoming a prominent WNBA fixture, Delle Donne walked on to the volleyball team at the University of Delaware and led the team to the conference title before joining the basketball team, where she led the nation in scoring as a junior and took her team to the Sweet 16 as a senior. Delle Donne was selected No. 2 in the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky and led the team in 2014 to its first finals appearance. Her 2013 draft class included Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith and is regarded as one of the most influential classes in league history.
After being traded to the Mystics in 2017, the 6-5 forward won her WNBA championship and second league MVP in 2019, making her the first player to earn the honor with two different franchises. An elite shooter, Delle Donne has the league’s all-time leading free-throw percentage (93.7) and was the first WNBA player to achieve the 50-40-90 mark (50 percent from the field, 40 percent for 3, 90 percent from the free-throw line) for a single season. Her versatility quickly attracted attention among opponents, as Delle Donne’s nimble ballhandling paired with her height and lethal shooting made her a threat in every aspect of the game. In addition to her 2016 Rio Olympic gold, she has gold medals from the 2018 FIBA World Cup and 2011 World University Games.
Delle Donne is also an outspoken advocate for those with Lyme disease and has talked openly about her struggles with the illness. She is also a champion of disability awareness, inspired by her older sister Lizzie. — Emily Ohman, staff writer
Joey Crawford (referee)
NBA referee (1977–2016), 2,561 regular-season games, 374 playoff games, 50 NBA Finals games
By the close of the 2014-15 season, Joey Crawford had refereed more playoff and NBA Finals games than any active referee. He is among the two longest-tenured NBA referees in league history, having been active for 39 seasons. In November 2005, he became the sixth referee to officiate 2,000 games and was a staple officiating the game’s biggest moments for almost four decades.
Crawford is the 19th referee inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the ninth NBA-specific referee.
Crawford became infamous for his quick technical fouls, most notably in a tiff with Tim Duncan in 2007. Crawford ejected the San Antonio Spurs Hall of Famer for laughing while on the bench. Crawford claimed Duncan had been laughing at him and used an expletive, while Duncan later said that Crawford had asked him if he wanted to fight. Crawford was later suspended by the league and said the incident changed his life and the way he approached the job.
He retired in 2016 due to nagging knee injuries, and his legacy is forever tied to being one of the most experienced referees in league history, trusted in a record number of playoff games. — Henderson
1996 United States Women’s National Team (team)
1996 Olympic gold medal, 10 future Hall of Fame members
The WNBA owes a debt of gratitude to this group.
The team, coached by legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer and headlined by stars Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, Dawn Staley, and others, ran roughshod over its competition in Atlanta. They went 8-0 with an average margin of victory of more than 30 points.
However, more important than any individual accomplishment at the games was the lasting legacy of their impact. Their dominant showing raised the global profile of the women’s game and contributed to the launch of the WNBA in late 1996. The Olympic team went on a months-long global tour in preparation for the 1996 Games, showcasing the sustainability of interest in the women’s game across the world while playing against college and professional teams globally.
The Olympics proved the culmination of the statement that there was a market for a professional women’s basketball league in the United States, and the players on the team became some of the earliest superstar pillars of the WNBA, which launched its first season in 1997.
“Now when I look in hindsight,” Lobo said ahead of the ESPN “Dream On” documentary series on the team, “… Holy cow, what the Olympic team did, the launch of the WNBA that’s here 26 years later, would there even be a WNBA without that team? Certainly not in that immediate time frame.”
The Americans averaged 102 points a game in their eight-game run. Leslie and Katrina McClain led the team in scoring, averaging 19.5 and 14.1 points, respectively. Leslie also added 7.3 rebounds a night and took home tournament MVP.
She later became a three-time WNBA MVP and two-time champion. All told, 10 players on the 1996 Olympic team became Hall of Famers, including Staley in 2013, all benefiting from the fruits of their labor, shepherding in the eyeballs necessary to eventually form the WNBA.
“We didn’t really have those profound conversations,” Staley said. “It was OK then to not feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. We were task-oriented.
“But when you grow and remove yourself from that time, you do have those conversations now. It is cool to have been part of the evolution of a sport, to have seen it, felt it, lived it, and take the time to really, really try to appreciate it and think how to keep it going.” — Henderson
Chamique Holdsclaw (player)
WNBA player (1999–2013), six-time WNBA All-Star, three-time NCAA champion
The star of Pat Summitt’s powerhouse Tennessee teams in the mid-1990s, Holdsclaw led the Volunteers to three straight national championships and won back-to-back NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards before being drafted with the No. 1 pick in the 1999 WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics. She left college as the SEC’s all-time leading scorer, totaling 3,025 points.
She was named Rookie of the Year after averaging 16.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in her first season, in which she also started in the inaugural WNBA All-Star Game. Despite struggling with injuries in subsequent years with the Mystics, she averaged a double-double in back-to-back seasons in 2002 and 2003, leading the WNBA in rebounds per game each year.
She finished her WNBA career after stints with the Los Angeles Sparks, Atlanta Dream and San Antonio Silver Stars. Holdsclaw was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. — Mark Puleo, senior editor
Mike D’Antoni (coach)
NBA coach (1998-2020), two-time NBA Coach of the Year
Considered one of the most innovative coaches in NBA history, D’Antoni jumped into the NBA coaching ranks after spending seven years coaching in Italy, where he previously played with Olimpia Milano from 1977 to 1990, retiring as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
In the NBA, D’Antoni revolutionized the pace of offensive play coaching the Phoenix Suns from 2003 to 2008, leading the Suns to 50-plus wins in four consecutive seasons. After coaching stints with the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, D’Antoni again took the league by storm in the late 2010s with the Houston Rockets, leading the Rockets to three straight 50-plus win seasons. He famously coached two guards to MVP campaigns, Steve Nash and James Harden, and was instrumental in the career of fellow Hall of Famer Stoudemire. — Puleo
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
NBA, Men's College Basketball, WNBA, Women's College Basketball
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