Some of basketball\u2019s coolest signature moves of the 21st century get minted and immortalized this weekend \u2014 Carmelo Anthony\u2019s buttery jab-step jumper, Dwight Howard\u2019s soul-deflating swat, Sue Bird\u2019s flick-of-the-wrist transition dime, Maya Moore\u2019s gliding finger roll.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Hall of Fame class is relatively small, but it includes a cadre of the sport\u2019s most impactful stars.<\/p>\n
How to watch the 2025 Hall of Fame induction ceremony A live broadcast from the red carpet begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBA TV.<\/p>\n Anthony, a collegiate national champion in his freshman year at Syracuse, made 10 NBA All-Star teams and won a scoring title in 2012-13. He was a consistent bucket as the game evolved in offensive fluidity. On the other end, Howard paced the league in rebounds five times and in blocks twice, while winning three Defensive Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n Bird, a consummate initiator and assister, won at every stage of her decorated career: two NCAA titles at UConn, four WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm, five Olympic gold medals, five additional titles in the Russian National League and five more in the EuroLeague. Moore, her teammate on the United States national team, was a four-time champion with the Minnesota Lynx. She also anchored UConn\u2019s back-to-back undefeated runs in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and was the W\u2019s MVP in 2014. Moore\u2019s final pro campaign was in 2018, her age-29 season; she first focused on ministry<\/a> efforts, then worked to free now-husband Jonathan Irons from prison after his wrongful conviction<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fifth player to be inducted Saturday is Sylvia Fowles. Like Howard in the NBA, she was a generational defender and intimidating paint presence across the WNBA. Fowles won two rings and two Finals MVPs with the Lynx, plus a regular-season MVP in 2017 and four DPOY awards between 2011 and 2021.<\/p>\n Other members of the 2025 class are coach Billy Donovan (back-to-back national champion at Florida, currently with the Chicago Bulls) official Danny Crawford (who reffed from 1985 to 2017) and executive Micky Arison (owner of the Miami Heat). The 2008 U.S. Olympics men\u2019s \u201cRedeem Team,\u201d which won the gold medal in Beijing, will also be enshrined.<\/p>\n 2025 inductees across the NYT archivesCarmelo Anthony<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018This is the best feeling I\u2019ve ever had in my life,\u2019 Anthony said. \u2018Winning the national championship hasn\u2019t sunk in yet.\u2019<\/p>\n Anthony emerged as the singular star during the three-week tournament. An 18-year-old forward who is 6-foot-8 and about 220 pounds, Anthony was averaging 22.3 points and 10 rebounds a game before tonight. He put the Orangemen in the final with 33 points and 14 rebounds in Saturday\u2019s 95-84 victory over Texas. In tonight\u2019s game, Anthony had 13 first-half points and was involved in much more than that. He had 7 first-half assists, most of them coming when the Jayhawks tried to help Keith Langford cover Anthony and Anthony passed off. When waiting to come back after a brief rest, Anthony became Syracuse\u2019s tallest cheerleader by standing in front of the scorer\u2019s table, smiling and twirling two towels after teammates Gerry McNamara and Kueth Duany sank 3-pointers.\u201d \u2014 Joe Lapointe at the 2003 NCAA title game<\/a><\/p>\n Dwight Howard<\/p>\n \u201cHis chest bulges, his shoulders and forearms twitch, his calves explode, and soon Dwight Howard is in flight, an airborne Adonis with bad intentions. Rims bend, defenders cower, fans roar. At age 23, Howard, the Orlando Magic center, is already the most physically imposing player in the N.B.A., a worthy heir to Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O\u2019Neal. He has Russell\u2019s passion for defense and O\u2019Neal\u2019s zeal for crushing defenders. His power and athleticism are breathtaking.\u201d \u2014 Howard Beck during the 2009 NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n Sue Bird<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot to get used to for Sue Bird, the No. 1 college player on the No. 1 college team last season, the first overall pick by the Seattle Storm in the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association draft this year, the playmaker with the sweet smile, the fluffy ponytail, the killer crossover and the assassin\u2019s pull-up jumper.<\/p>\n Not only are the players bigger and stronger in the W.N.B.A. than those in college \u2014 she\u2019s 5 feet 9 inches, 155 pounds \u2014 not only are they quicker and wilier, but there is also the poke in the solar plexus when taking the shot, the elbow to the ribs when driving to the hoop or the forearm to prevent you from getting through on defense. And, to be sure, the arenas are different. Especially the one last night: Madison Square Garden, the hometown arena for Bird, who grew up in Syosset on Long Island.\u201d \u2014 Ira Berkow during Bird\u2019s 2002 WNBA rookie season<\/a><\/p>\n Maya Moore<\/p>\n \u201cThe Monster \u2014 the nickname the Los Angeles Sparks\u2019 interim coach, Penny Toler, pinned on Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx last week \u2014 fits Moore\u2019s play better than it does her personality. Could a monster make her own ice cream, as Moore does? Could a monster charm a 10-year-old girl seeking an autograph or the president of the United States? Would any team dare to let a monster dance on the court and address the home crowd after victories? Then again, Toler\u2019s description fits the kind of season Moore, a fourth-year professional player, is having. <\/p>\n Moore led the W.N.B.A. in scoring (a career-best 23.9 points per game) and ranked fifth in steals (1.88 per game) while averaging 34.7 minutes per game, more than anyone except Skylar Diggins of Tulsa (35.1 minutes). Her 812 points for the season were a franchise record and the third highest in W.N.B.A. history. This month, Moore, a former Connecticut star, set a league record with her 12th 30-point game of the season.\u201d \u2014 Pat Borzi during Moore\u2019s 2014 season<\/a><\/p>\n Sylvia Fowles<\/p>\n \u201cFowles was named the league\u2019s defensive player of the year four times, including last season. She won two championships with the Lynx, in 2015 and 2017, and was named the most valuable player of the finals both times. She won the league\u2019s M.V.P. award in 2017 and has four Olympic gold medals. After having her name attached to those kinds of accolades for so long, Fowles said she was ready to find out what else she likes to do. She has spoken about her interest in becoming a funeral director.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m curious to see what I am without basketball,\u2019 she said. \u2018I\u2019m eager to see this new person.’\u201d \u2014 Shauntel Lowe after Fowles\u2019 2022 retirement<\/a><\/p>\n 2008 U.S. Men\u2019s National Team<\/p>\n \u201cWith their elbows locked, smiles iridescent and extreme image makeover complete, the United States men\u2019s basketball players took their final step into Olympic lore in the most appropriate way \u2026 together.<\/p>\n They pulled one another up to the gold medal podium on Sunday after a 118-107 victory over Spain in an old-fashioned shootout that could long resonate as a standard for international play. After hammering their opponents by an average of 30.2 points through their first seven games, the Americans outlasted the Spaniards in their first wire-to-wire test of the Olympics, a game as aesthetically pleasing as it was entertaining. The United States never trailed in the second half but did not officially put Spain away until Dwyane Wade, unofficially the best player in these Olympics, drilled a 3-pointer with 2 minutes 2 seconds remaining.\u201d \u2014 Pete Thamel at 2008\u2019s gold medal game in Beijing<\/a><\/p>\n Billy Donovan<\/p>\n \u201cThe Florida Gators left one final, indelible memory as one of the great teams in modern college basketball. Their emphatic 84-75 victory over Ohio State in the national title game Monday night gave them back-to-back championships \u2014 the first repeat titlist since Duke in 1991 and 1992 \u2014 and a claim as arguably the best team since John Wooden\u2019s dynasty days at U.C.L.A.\u201d \u2014 Thamel at the 2007 NCAA title game<\/a><\/p>\n Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic.\u00a0Restrictions may apply.\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.<\/p>\n (Photo of Carmelo Anthony: Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of basketball\u2019s coolest signature moves of the 21st century get minted and immortalized this weekend \u2014 Carmelo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,590,85,5941],"class_list":{"0":"post-123033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVenue: Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame \u2014 Springfield, Mass.
\nTime: 7 p.m. ET, Saturday
\nTV: NBA TV
\nStreaming:\u00a0Fubo (Stream Free Now<\/a>)<\/p>\n