Candace Parker heads 2026 Basketball Hall of Fame class
PHOENIX — Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.
Parker, Holdsclaw and members of the 1996 Olympic team were all in attendance Friday at halftime of the UConn-South Carolina game in the NCAA Women’s Final Four, where the selections were announced, as were Amar’e Stoudemire and Mike D’Antoni.
They will be joined by longtime NBA official Joey Crawford, NBA coach Doc Rivers and Gonzaga Hall of Fame coach Mark Few.
Parker won three WNBA titles with three different teams: Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas. She is the only player in league history to win both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season.
She also won two titles while playing in college for Tennessee under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, as well as two Olympic gold medals and two WNBA MVP awards.
Delle Donne won two league MVP awards in 2015 and 2019, including the second when she led the Washington Mystics to their only WNBA championship. Delle Donne became the first player in league history to shoot over 50% from the field, 40% from three-point range and 90% from the free throw line.
Holdsclaw won three consecutive titles at Tennessee from 1996 to 1998, the first team to do so. The 1998 championship was Tennessee’s first undefeated season with a 39–0 record and the Vols also set an NCAA record for most wins in a season. Holdsclaw went on to an 11-year career in the WNBA.
Stoudemire, who was the only NBA player in this year’s class, was named Rookie of the Year in 2003 and became a six-time All-Star. He spent the first eight years of his career with the Phoenix Suns, where he teamed with D’Antoni.
Rivers has nearly 1,200 wins to his name, which places him eighth on the all-time wins list. He led the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship in 2008 and also managed the Los Angeles Clippers during the Lob City era.
Few have won more than 770 games at Gonzaga during his career at the school. He set the NCAA Division I men’s coaching record by winning 81 games in his first three years at the school.
Crawford officiated 2,561 NBA regular season games and 50 Finals games during his 39-year career. He retired in 2016.
The induction ceremony will take place in August at the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
