SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Former Dallas Mavericks big man Amar’e Stoudemire was among nine inductees for the Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Beginning his career as the Phoenix Suns’ ninth overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, Stoudemire won Rookie of the Year in the first of his eight seasons in Phoenix.
Stoudemire was a force for rims to be trifled with, appearing in the 2003 and 2005 Dunk Contests and finishing plays with ferocity. Once the Suns signed elite playmaker Steve Nash away from Dallas in the summer of 2004, those dunks only became more frequent and more violent.
The duo came to embody Phoenix’s seven-seconds-or-less offensive philosophy, getting shots up in a hurry en route to one of the NBA’s greatest-ever offenses. Stoudemire was a five-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection with the Suns before departing for the New York Knicks prior to the 2010-11 season.
He made another All-Star and All-NBA team in his first season in New York, but they would both prove to be his last.
Marred by injuries in his next three-and-a-half seasons with the Knicks, Stoudemire was waived in February of 2015. Two days later, the Mavericks extended Stoudemire a contract to finish his year in Dallas.
Stoudemire only played 23 games in Dallas, averaging 10.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 16.5 minutes per game. That offseason, he joined the Miami Heat, where he’d play his final NBA season in 2015-16.
Across 846 career games, Stoudemire averaged 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds on 53.7% field-goal shooting.
Mike D’Antoni
Another staple of Phoenix’s seven-seconds-or-less offense was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a contributor.
Mike D’Antoni was an offensive wizard. He emphasized floor-spacing and uptempo basketball, revolutionizing the game first with the Suns and then with James Harden’s Houston Rockets.
Named Coach of the Year in the 2004-05 and 2016-17 seasons, D’Antoni enjoyed 672 victories in his career, winning 56% of the games that he coached.
Outside of Phoenix and Houston, D’Antoni had stints leading the Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers.
Doc Rivers
Across 27 years of head coaching, Doc Rivers’ 1,194 wins rank sixth all-time.
Rivers coached his first season for the Orlando Magic in 1999-2000, winning Coach of the Year. Orlando only went 41-41 in the season, but Rivers helped lead the team well above its 29.5 preseason over/under on win total.
He started a new chapter as the head coach of the Boston Celtics in 2004-05. Rivers enjoyed his greatest success in Boston, winning the 2008 NBA title against the rival Lakers and advancing to the 2010 NBA Finals.
After his time with the Celtics, Rivers commanded the sidelines of the “Lob City” Los Angeles Clippers for seven seasons, helping them to unprecedented success despite playoff shortcomings.
Next, Rivers spent three seasons as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers before joining the Milwaukee Bucks for another three years. After a 32-50 campaign with Milwaukee in 2025-26, Rivers announced his retirement. Shortly thereafter, he was named an inductee for the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Mark Few
Mark Few was another coach to be immortalized on Saturday, although he made his name perusing the collegiate sidelines.
Few joined the Gonzaga Bulldogs ahead of the 1999-00 season and has never left, winning at least 23 games in each of his last 27 years in Spokane, Washington. Twice named Naismith Coach of the Year (2016-17, 2020-21), Few has a career 83.2% winning percentage.
He’s led Gonzaga to two NCAA Championship appearances, once in 2017 and once in 2021. The Bulldogs came up just short both years, despite entering the 2021 title game with an undefeated 31-0 record.
Last year, Few’s Gonzaga squad went 31-4, making it to the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament.
Joey Crawford
Joey Crawford was the lone referee inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2026.
Crawford reffed in the NBA for 39 seasons, entering in 1977 and leaving the game in 2016. He’s officiated 2,561 regular-season games, the second-most all-time.
His 374 playoff games and 50 NBA Finals games officiated are both NBA records. Crawford appeared in every NBA Finals from 1986-2015 except 2007, which he missed due to a suspension stemming from his famous ejection of Tim Duncan earlier that season.
Candace Parker
Candace Parker headlines a trio of WNBA players to be inducted in the 2026 Hall of Fame class.
One of the most decorated women’s basketball players of all time, Parker played three seasons at the University of Tennessee, where she won two NCAA titles and the 2007-08 Naismith Player of the Year award.
Parker entered the WNBA as the first pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2008 draft, winning both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in her first professional season. She won another MVP in 2013, Defensive Player of the Year in 2020 and WNBA titles in 2016, 2021 and 2023.
She also holds ten All-WNBA appearances and seven All-Star Game appearances. Parker averaged 16 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4 assists across 16 seasons with Los Angeles, the Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces.
Elena Delle Donne
Another two-time WNBA MVP, Elena Delle Donne, was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Drafted second overall in 2013 by Chicago out of the University of Delaware, Delle Donne was immediately effective and an All-Star in her first season with the Sky. She won her first MVP in 2015 while leading the league with 23.4 points per game.
Delle Donne joined the Washington Mystics ahead of the 2017 season, winning her second MVP and lone WNBA Championship in 2019. She played her final year in 2023, still an All-Star.
Across her career, Delle Donne averaged 19.5 points and 6.7 rebounds while making seven All-Star teams and five All-WNBA teams.
Chamique Holdsclaw
Chamique Holdsclaw rounded out the former WNBA players inducted in the 2026 Hall of Fame class.
Washington’s first overall pick in the 1999 WNBA Draft, Holdsclaw played 11 seasons in the league. She won Rookie of the Year in her first season, also making an All-Star and All-WNBA team.
She was a one-time scoring champion and a two-time rebounding champion in her professional career with the Mystics, Sparks, Atlanta Dream and San Antonio Silver Stars. Holdsclaw made six All-Star appearances and three All-WNBA teams with career averages of 16.9 points and 7.6 rebounds before calling it a career after the 2010 season.
1996 USA Basketball Women’s National Team
The final inductee in the 2026 Basketball Hall of Fame class was the 1996 USA Basketball Women’s National Team.
At the Olympic Games in Atlanta, the 1996 USA Women’s team plowed through the competition for the gold, finishing 8-0 and winning games by an average of 28.6 points per contest.
Led by future Hall of Famers like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Dawn Staley, the 1996 USA Women’s team set the stage for the future of women’s basketball. Just a year after the Olympics, the WNBA played its inaugural season in 1997.
