A new class of honorees will be enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame during Saturday’s ceremony, further cementing the legacy of some of the most iconic men’s and women’s basketball players. On the men’s side, the honorees feature Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, while the women’s side will induct a trio of legendary players in Maya Moore, Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles. Also getting inducted are NBA and former collegiate basketball coach Billy Donovan, the entire 2008 USA men’s national team and Miami Heat owner Micky Arison.
Ahead of the ceremony, here’s a breakdown of the five players getting inducted.
Carmelo Anthony
A 10-time All Star, six-time All-NBA recipient and a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, Anthony’s illustrious accomplishments span his collegiate, professional and Olympic career. Anthony’s lone college season at Syracuse was about as storybook as it gets. He entered his freshman year as one of the top prospects in the nation, either No. 1 or No. 2 depending on which recruiting ranking you used. He swept up pretty much every award imaginable in a freshman year where he averaged 22.2 points and 10 rebounds to lead Syracuse to a national championship. His single season was so dominant that he slotted fifth in CBS Sports’ ranking of the best college basketball players of the last 25 years.
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Anthony continued that dominant play in the NBA, where he was taken with the third pick in the 2003 draft by the Denver Nuggets. He finished with career averages of 22.5 points and 6.2 rebounds in 19 seasons with the Nuggets, Knicks, Thunder, Rockets, Trail Blazers and Lakers. Though a championship evaded him in the NBA, Anthony did collect a ton of hardware playing for Team USA in four Olympic games. He still holds the record for most points in a single game by a Team USA member with 37, has appeared in the second-most games, and is one of just three players to collect four Olympic medals along with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Dwight Howard
Outside of Shaquille O’Neal, there wasn’t a more dominant traditional center in the last 25 years than Howard. Bursting on the scene in 2004 after making the jump from high school straight to the NBA, Howard was taken No. 1 overall by the Orlando Magic and proceeded to become a double-double machine. He’s the only player in NBA history to have won Defensive Player of the Year three consecutive times, was an eight-time All Star and eight-time All-NBA selection and was the rebounding champion five times. Howard is perhaps best known to casual NBA audiences for his Dunk Contest performances, winning the crown in 2008 on the heels of his mind-blowing “Superman” dunk.
Howard’s career saw several highs and lows, and it wasn’t until his second stint with the Lakers that he reached the ultimate goal, winning a championship during the 2020 Orlando bubble. Howard also has a gold medal to his name, having won with Team USA at the 2008 Olympics, otherwise known as the “Redeem Team.”
Maya Moore
There are very few basketball players, men or women, who have won more than Moore at every level. One look at her Wikipedia page and you’ll find yourself scrolling forever to reach the end of her accolades, both on and off the court. Just to make it quick, let’s list out some of the major ones:
- Four-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
- Five-time All-WNBA first team
- WNBA Rookie of the Year
- WNBA 20th Anniversary team
- WNBA 25th Anniversary team
And that’s not even half of the awards to her name. The craziest part is that Moore accomplished all of that at the professional level in just eight years. So, for 50% of her WNBA career she won a championship. There are certainly very few players who can say that — in fact, the only one that comes to mind is Bill Russell, who won a title in all but two years over a 13-year career.
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After essentially accomplishing everything a person could in basketball, Moore stepped away from the game in 2019 in order to focus on criminal justice reform. While initially considered a hiatus, Moore did not return to basketball and officially retired in January 2023. Throughout her basketball career, and even more so during her time away from the sport, Moore became a prominent activist, helping to free a man, her now-husband Jonathan Irons, from prison who was wrongfully convicted of murder after serving 22 years of a 50-year sentence. Moore’s No. 23 jersey was retired by the Minnesota Lynx in August 2024.
Sue Bird
From the college to the pros, there are few more recognizable women’s basketball players than Bird. A four-time WNBA champion, as well as a two-time NCAA champion, the longevity of Bird’s career — spending all 21 of her WNBA seasons with the Seattle Storm — is unmatched. She’s the only player in WNBA history to win a championship in three different decades, and she became the oldest player to complete an entire season at age 41 in 2022. She holds the record for most WNBA games played ever at 580, is the all-time assist leader with 3,234 and ranks ninth in total career points.
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No one has as many All-Star selections as Bird, while she ranks second in 3-pointers made and also ranks in the top 10 all-time for steals, fewest turnovers and field goals made. Though she never won an MVP award, those Storm teams never would have won all four of those titles without her leadership.
Sylvia Fowles
Only two players in WNBA history have won Defensive Player of the Year four or more times: Tamika Catchings (5) and Fowles (4). Over her 15-year career, Fowles established herself as one of the most dominant centers 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 as well as eight All-Star appearances.
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She was a mainstay on the women’s Olympic team, winning gold medals five times for Team USA, and formed a dominant trio with Moore and Seimone Augustus on those championship Lynx teams. Fowles’ No. 34 jersey is retired by both the Lynx and her alma mater of LSU, where she was a two-time All-American, earning SEC Player of the Year and SEC Defensive Player of the Year in her senior season.
