UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Dawn Staley and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team paved the way for the WNBA and players such as Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw.
The team that started the Americans’ 30-year Olympic dominance will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday along with Parker, Delle Donne and Holdsclaw.
They will be joined by NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire, NBA coaches Doc Rivers and Mike D’Antoni, Gonzaga coach Mark Few and longtime NBA official Joey Crawford.
It’s the second consecutive year that a stellar class of women will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame after Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles were inducted in 2025.
Parker, a Naperville Central alumna, won three WNBA titles with three teams: the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces. 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 college national titles while playing for Tennessee under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, plus two Olympic gold medals and two WNBA MVP awards.
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Delle Donne also won two league MVP awards: in 2015 with the Sky and in 2019, when she led the Washington Mystics to their lone WNBA championship. She became the first player in league history to shoot more than 50% from the field, 40% from behind the 3-point line and 90% from the free-throw line.
Holdsclaw won three straight titles at Tennessee from 1996-98, the first team to accomplish that. The 1998 championship was Tennessee’s first undefeated season at 39-0, and the Vols also set an NCAA record for the most wins in a season. Holdsclaw went on to have an 11-year WNBA career.
Rivers, a Proviso East and Marquette alumnus, has won 1,194 regular-season games, sixth in league history, as an NBA coach for five teams. He led the Boston Celtics to a championship in 2008.
Stoudemire was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003 and a six-time All-Star. He spent his first eight seasons with the Phoenix Suns, where he teamed with D’Antoni.
Few has won more than 770 games at Gonzaga and set the NCAA Division I men’s coaching record by winning 81 games in his first three years at the school.
Crawford officiated more than 2,500 regular-season games, nearly 400 more in the postseason and 50 in the NBA Finals during his 39-year career.