This year’s Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class will be loaded with big names.
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported four of the individuals who will receive basketball’s highest honor. Candace Parker, Doc Rivers, Elena Delle Donne and Amar’e Stoudemire will be among this year’s inductees. All for make for very qualified candidates and are deserving of induction to the Hall of Fame.
It is unlikely they will be the only inductees, either. The list of this year’s finalists was made up of 21 individuals, and last year’s class saw nine inductees—a group made up of players, referees, coaches, executives and the entire 2008 Olympic team. So the quartet of Parker, Rivers, Delle Donne and Stoudemire will almost certainly be joined by a few others who will receive the honor.
Parker retired from the WNBA in 2024 and boasts a truly incredible résumé. She won back-to-back national championships at Tennessee before heading to the pros. Parker was voted MVP and Rookie of the Year after getting drafted in 2008 by the Sparks; she’d go on to win three WNBA titles and another MVP award. She made 10 All-WNBA teams over the course of her 16 professional seasons, as well as seven All-Star teams. To cap it all off Parker is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Now a member of Amazon Prime’s broadcast team, she figures to be an ambassador for the game for a long time and now gets to enjoy an eternal spot in the Hall of Fame.
Rivers has been a longtime figure in the NBA as a player, broadcaster and coach. He played for 13 years in the NBA as a point guard and earned one All-Star nomination before retiring to join the TNT broadcast team. He took his first coaching job with the Magic in 1999 and has been a steadfast face on the NBA sideline nearly every year since. Rivers won Coach of the Year in 2000 and won the ‘08 championship with the Celtics. As he wraps up this season with the Bucks, Rivers has coached five NBA teams and ranks sixth on the NBA’s all-time regular season coaching records list with 1,191 victories as of writing.
Delle Donne is another WNBA legend who is getting her well-deserved flowers with this nomination. She was a two-time All-American at Delaware and led the NCAA in scoring in 2012 before she entered the WNBA with the Sky. Delle Donne would go on to win two MVP awards and the 2019 WNBA title, finishing her career with seven All-Star selections and five All-WNBA nods. She was part of the 2016 Olympic team as well, adding a gold medal to her list of accomplishments.
Stoudemire was one of the most exciting players in the NBA for a long stretch in the 2000s. The superstar forward is one of the bigger success stories among players who jumped right from high school to the NBA; Stoudemire averaged nearly 30 points per game at Cypress Creek High School before he was selected ninth in the 2002 NBA draft by the Suns. He’d go on to make a name for himself as a tremendous scorer and absolutely electric dunker. By the time Stoudemire hung up the sneakers he won the Rookie of the Year award and earned five All-NBA selections, as well as six All-Star nods while playing for the Suns, Knicks, Mavericks and Heat across 14 seasons.
The Hall of Fame will undoubtedly announce the rest of the candidates in the coming weeks. But these four make for a great starting point as far as honoring the game with this year’s class.
Basketball Hall of Fame 2026 class
Here you’ll find the full list of the indivdiuals chosen to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame class of 2026. The date of their induction hasn’t yet been announced but last year’s took place in early September ahead of the NBA season, so it seems likely this year’s will occur around the same time.
| NOMINEE | CLASS |
|---|---|
| Candace Parker | 2026 |
| Doc Rivers | 2026 |
| Elena Delle Donne | 2026 |
| Amar’e Stoudemire | 2026 |
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Candace Parker, Doc Rivers to Headline Basketball Hall of Fame Class for 2026.
