The 2026 Naismith Basketball HOF class, which inducted eight individuals and one team on Saturday in Springfield, Mass., featured former WNBAers Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw, the USA Women’s 1996 Olympic gold medal squad, former NBAer Amar’e Stoudemire, former NBA coaches Mike D’Antoni and Doc Rivers, Gonzaga coach Mark Few and former NBA referee Joey Crawford.
Holdsclaw: Having grown up in New York, Holdsclaw “shared memories of the support she received from guys she shared courts with,” including a fellow future basketball All-Star from her stomping grounds, former NBAer Metta Sandiford-Artest.D’Antoni: D’Antoni deferred his success to the “family, friends, players and executives who trusted his vision for changing basketball.”Delle Donne: One of the best shooters in WNBA history, Delle Donne started her speech by noting the presence of comedian Larry David and said she hoped to do a “prettay, prettay” good job.Parker: An emotional Parker “passed a basketball throughout her speech,” dishing to her brother, Anthony, Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade and Cheryl Miller.Stoudemire: Stoudemire thanked God and looked back on a childhood in which he “routinely obeyed his mother as he sought a basketball career to lift his family out of poverty.”The 1996 women’s national team: HOFers Teresa Edwards, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Rebecca Lobo and coach Tara VanDerveer “reflected on the value of helping establish women’s basketball” (THE ATHLETIC, 8/15).Rivers mentioned the “trick” to being a good coach. He said, “If you can coach your players hard, and they know it comes from a loving place, you can be really successful in the business” (NBA.com, 8/15).