(Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne lead the 2026 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame class revealed on Thursday.
WNBA and Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve, ESPN basketball analyst Doris Burke and international basketball legends Isabelle Fijalkowski of France and Amaya Valdemoro of Spain are also to be inducted in a ceremony next June.
Parker was inducted in her first year of eligibility. A superstar at the University of Tennessee, Parker won back-to-back national titles with the Lady Vols and was the No. 1 pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft.
She’s a seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time WNBA MVP (2008, 2013) and became the first player in WNBA history to win Rookie of the Year and League MVP in the same season.
She’s the only player in the WNBA with championships with three different teams: the Los Angeles Sparks (2016), the Chicago Sky (2021), and the Las Vegas Aces (2023).
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Parker retired prior to the 2024 season. Like Delle Donne, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time league MVP who retired after the 2024 season, she can be eligible for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame four years after officially retiring. Delle Donne won her second WNBA MVP award in 2019 and claimed the WNBA championship the same year with the Washington Mystics.
She attended the University of Delaware and set 45 school records, including 3,039 career points. She’s ninth on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list. She was Rookie of the Year with the Chicago Sky after being selected second overall in 2013.
Delle Donne played in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where Team USA claimed gold, and recently was named managing director of Team USA’s 3-on-3 national team.
Reeve is a four-time WNBA Coach of the Year, won four WNBA titles with the Minnesota Lynx and coached Team USA to a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She assisted with Dawn Staley and Doug Bruno on the Team USA coaching staff headed by Geno Auriemma in 2016.
Fijalkowski won five French League championships and played for the Cleveland Rockers for two seasons in the WNBA.
Valdemoro won three WNBA titles with the Houston Comets and eight Spanish League titles.
Kirkwood Community College head coach Kim Muhl and late Clemson Tigers star Barbara Kennedy-Dixon are also in the 2026 class.
Burke was a standout guard at Providence but is widely recognized for her broadcasting career. Burke, 60, has covered college basketball since 1991. In 2023, she was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame for her pioneering work in broadcasting. In 2024, she was the first woman to call the NBA Finals as a television analyst.
–Field Level Media
