A brand new class of honorees will likely be enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame throughout Saturday’s ceremony, additional cementing the legacy of a few of the most iconic males’s and girls’s basketball gamers. On the boys’s facet, the honorees characteristic Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, whereas the ladies’s facet will induct a trio of legendary gamers in Maya Moore, Sue Hen and Sylvia Fowles. Additionally getting inducted are NBA and former collegiate basketball coach Billy Donovan, your complete 2008 USA males’s nationwide group and Miami Warmth proprietor Micky Arison.
Forward of the ceremony, this is a breakdown of the 5 gamers getting inducted.
Carmelo Anthony
A ten-time All Star, six-time All-NBA recipient and a member of the NBA’s seventy fifth Anniversary Workforce, Anthony’s illustrious accomplishments span his collegiate, skilled and Olympic profession. Anthony’s lone school season at Syracuse was about as storybook because it will get. He entered his freshman 12 months as one of many prime prospects within the nation, both No. 1 or No. 2 relying on which recruiting rating you used. He swept up just about each award possible in a freshman 12 months the place he averaged 22.2 factors and 10 rebounds to guide Syracuse to a nationwide championship. His single season was so dominant that he slotted fifth in CBS Sports activities’ rating of the greatest school basketball gamers of the final 25 years.
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Anthony continued that dominant play within the NBA, the place he was taken with the third choose within the 2003 draft by the Denver Nuggets. He completed with profession averages of twenty-two.5 factors and 6.2 rebounds in 19 seasons with the Nuggets, Knicks, Thunder, Rockets, Path Blazers and Lakers. Although a championship evaded him within the NBA, Anthony did gather a ton of {hardware} taking part in for Workforce USA in 4 Olympic video games. He nonetheless holds the report for many factors in a single recreation by a Workforce USA member with 37, has appeared within the second-most video games, and is considered one of simply three gamers to gather 4 Olympic medals together with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Dwight Howard
Outdoors of Shaquille O’Neal, there wasn’t a extra dominant conventional heart within the final 25 years than Howard. Bursting on the scene in 2004 after making the soar from highschool straight to the NBA, Howard was taken No. 1 general by the Orlando Magic and proceeded to develop into a double-double machine. He is the one participant in NBA historical past to have gained Defensive Participant of the Yr three consecutive instances, was an eight-time All Star and eight-time All-NBA choice and was the rebounding champion 5 instances. Howard is probably greatest recognized to informal NBA audiences for his Dunk Contest performances, profitable the crown in 2008 on the heels of his mind-blowing “Superman” dunk.
Howard’s profession noticed a number of highs and lows, and it wasn’t till his second stint with the Lakers that he reached the last word purpose, profitable a championship through the 2020 Orlando bubble. Howard additionally has a gold medal to his identify, having gained with Workforce USA on the 2008 Olympics, in any other case generally known as the “Redeem Workforce.”
Maya Moore
There are only a few basketball gamers, males or girls, who’ve gained greater than Moore at each stage. One take a look at her Wikipedia web page and you will find your self scrolling without end to achieve the top of her accolades, each on and off the courtroom. Simply to make it fast, let’s record out a few of the main ones:
- 4-time WNBA champion
- Two-time Olympic gold medalist
- Two-time NCAA champion
- Two-time EuroLeague champion
- WNBA MVP
- WNBA Finals MVP
- Six-time WNBA All Star
- 5-time All-WNBA first group
- WNBA Rookie of the Yr
- WNBA twentieth Anniversary group
- WNBA twenty fifth Anniversary group
And that is not even half of the awards to her identify. The craziest half is that Moore achieved all of that on the skilled stage in simply eight years. So, for 50% of her WNBA profession she gained a championship. There are definitely only a few gamers who can say that — in truth, the one one which involves thoughts is Invoice Russell, who gained a title in all however two years over a 13-year profession.
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After basically undertaking every part an individual may in basketball, Moore stepped away from the sport in 2019 as a way to deal with prison justice reform. Whereas initially thought-about a hiatus, Moore didn’t return to basketball and formally retired in January 2023. All through her basketball profession, and much more so throughout her time away from the game, Moore turned a distinguished activist, serving to to free a person, her now-husband Jonathan Irons, from jail who was wrongfully convicted of homicide after serving 22 years of a 50-year sentence. Moore’s No. 23 jersey was retired by the Minnesota Lynx in August 2024.
Sue Hen
From the school to the professionals, there are few extra recognizable girls’s basketball gamers than Hen. A four-time WNBA champion, in addition to a two-time NCAA champion, the longevity of Hen’s profession — spending all 21 of her WNBA seasons with the Seattle Storm — is unmatched. She’s the one participant in WNBA historical past to win a championship in three totally different a long time, and he or she turned the oldest participant to finish a whole season at age 41 in 2022. She holds the report for many WNBA video games performed ever at 580, is the all-time help chief with 3,234 and ranks ninth in complete profession factors.
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Nobody has as many All-Star choices as Hen, whereas she ranks second in 3-pointers made and in addition ranks within the prime 10 all-time for steals, fewest turnovers and subject objectives made. Although she by no means gained an MVP award, these Storm groups by no means would have gained all 4 of these titles with out her management.
Sylvia Fowles
Solely two gamers in WNBA historical past have gained Defensive Participant of the Yr 4 or extra instances: Tamika Catchings (5) and Fowles (4). Over her 15-year profession, Fowles established herself as probably the most dominant facilities the league has ever seen. She ranks second all-time in rebounds and fourth in blocks. She’s a two-time WNBA champion and two-time Finals MVP, a league MVP and earned 11 All-Defensive honors in addition to eight All-Star appearances.
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She was a mainstay on the ladies’s Olympic group, profitable gold medals 5 instances for Workforce USA, and shaped a dominant trio with Moore and Seimone Augustus on these championship Lynx groups. Fowles’ No. 34 jersey is retired by each the Lynx and her alma mater of LSU, the place she was a two-time All-American, incomes SEC Participant of the Yr and SEC Defensive Participant of the Yr in her senior season.
