The 2026 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, held in Springfield, Massachusetts, was dominated by women's basketball. Candace Parker led a group that also included Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw and the United States women's team that won Olympic gold in Atlanta 1996.
Parker, a three-time WNBA champion and two-time MVP, accumulated an exceptional record. She won three league rings with the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces, as well as two Olympic golds in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. She also won the EuroLeague championship in 2013 with UMMC Ekaterinburg and two NCAA titles with Tennessee. Her number 3 was retired by the Sky and the Sparks.
During the ceremony, Parker delivered an emotional speech about basketball. With a ball in her hands, she recalled key moments from her career and said: "We did a lot of things together. We were meant to be a love story that began 27 years ago".
Delle Donne, a two-time MVP and WNBA champion with the Washington Mystics, dedicated her speech to her sister Lizzie, who is blind and deaf. "She never played in front of thousands of people, never received a standing ovation. Yet I have never met anyone stronger," she said through tears. She was also the first WNBA player to achieve 50 per cent in field goals, 40 per cent in three-pointers and 90 per cent in free throws in the same season.
Holdsclaw and the 1996 women's Olympic team completed the prominent presence of women's basketball. Doc Rivers, Mike D'Antoni and Amar'e Stoudemire, NBA champion with Boston in 2008, were also inducted in the class, though the focus of the ceremony fell especially on the women who transformed the WNBA.