Parker, Delle Donne, Reeve Join Women's Basketball HOF
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, and Cheryl Reeve were inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday at the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville, the city where Parker starred for the Lady Vols.
- Cheryl Reeve enters the Hall with 378 regular-season wins — two shy of Mike Thibault's WNBA head-coaching record — and already holds the combined regular-season and playoff record at 430 wins, plus four WNBA titles with the Lynx and 2021 Olympic gold with Team USA.
- Reeve began her WNBA career as an assistant under the late Anne Donovan with the Charlotte Sting in 2001 at a $5,000 salary, recounting in her speech that her father once wondered aloud when she would 'get a real job.'
- Elena Delle Donne was moved to tears in her speech addressing her sister Lizzie, who was born blind, deaf, and with cerebral palsy, and drew a laugh by saying Knoxville's warmth may stem from the fact that she 'left UConn after 48 hours.'
- Candace Parker wore a suit she designed as a tribute to late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, quoting James Baldwin and telling the crowd, 'this is a tangible expression that I was watching, and I was indeed paying attention.'
- Parker and Delle Donne, both two-time WNBA MVPs and Olympic gold medalists who retired after 2023, will also be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in August.
- Also inducted: Spanish international Amaya Valdemoro, French star Isabelle Fijalkowski, ESPN broadcaster Doris Burke, Kirkwood Community College coach Kim Muhl, and posthumously former Clemson star Barbara Kennedy-Dixon.
Why it matters: Reeve is two wins from the WNBA's all-time head-coaching wins record heading into Sunday's Lynx game in Dallas, putting a career-defining record chase on the same weekend she enters the Hall of Fame. Parker and Delle Donne will be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in August, extending this class's recognition beyond the women's basketball-specific hall.
