KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Candace Parker’s basketball journey has come full circle.
It started when she led Tennessee to two national championships, then continued in the WNBA, where she was part of three titles and won two MVP awards. She also helped the U.S. win two Olympic gold medals.
Parker will be inducted Saturday night into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville. She'll be joined by Elena Delle Donne, Amaya Valdemoro and Isabelle Fijalkowski; coaches Cheryl Reeve and Kim Muhl; television analyst Doris Burke; and posthumous veteran honoree Barbara Kennedy-Dixon.
Parker is the 11th player and 17th person with Tennessee ties to be enshrined. Later this summer, Parker and Delle Donne will be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Delle Donne originally committed to play her college basketball at UConn but chose instead to stay close to her Wilmington home at the University of Delaware. She was a three-time Colonial Athletic Conference Player of the Year. She was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA draft. Delle Donne was a two-time WNBA MVP and was part of an Olympic gold medal-winning team.
Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished international players, Valdemoro made her mark in the WNBA. The native of Spain was part of the Houston Comets' run of three straight titles. She excelled in the EuroLeague.
Fijalkowski was born in France and played college basketball at the University of Colorado. She played in the WNBA’s first season, 1997, helping Cleveland to its only WNBA Finals appearance. She became the French national team’s all-time leading scorer (2,562 points).
The head coach and executive since 2010 with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, Reeve has won the league’s Coach of the Year honor four times and Executive of the Year twice. Reeve has led the Lynx to four WNBA titles. She was an assistant coach on two gold medal-winning Olympic teams before leading the U.S. to gold in 2024 as the head coach. Reeve took a break from the busy WNBA season to come to the induction ceremony. Her team plays at Dallas on Sunday.
After 37 years, Muhl announced his retirement as head women’s basketball coach at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He won 1,108 games.
Burke began working as a television analyst for Big East men’s basketball in the early 1990s. By 2017, she was a full-time NBA analyst for ESPN.
Kennedy-Dixon, who died in 2018, was a player and longtime administrator at Clemson.
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