The Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2026 got enshrined this weekend, and the headliners were Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne. A Candace Parker Hall of Fame night was always coming. What made this one land is that it did not feel like a courtesy wing of the building. It felt like the main room.
Parker's file reads like three careers stacked on top of each other. Tennessee, two national championships under Pat Summitt in 2007 and 2008. First overall pick by the Sparks in 2008, then Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, which nobody in league history had done before her. Then the part that still makes me shake my head: titles with three different franchises, Los Angeles in 2016, Chicago in 2021, Las Vegas in 2023. Players win rings. Players do not usually go build them from scratch in three different buildings.
Delle Donne's road there was stranger and, in its own way, tougher. She left the biggest program in the sport almost immediately and went home to Delaware to be near her sister, and a lot of people decided that told you something about her ambition. It told you something about her priorities instead. Rookie of the Year in 2013, MVP with Chicago in 2015, MVP again with Washington in 2019, and in that same 2019 season the first 50/40/90 shooting year the WNBA had ever seen, capped with the Mystics title. She played through more physical hardship than any highlight package will show you.
The rest of the class kept good company. Doc Rivers, who won the 2008 championship in Boston. Mike D'Antoni, whose seven-seconds-or-less Suns are still being copied by teams that will never admit it. Amar'e Stoudemire, the 2003 Rookie of the Year and the man who made those Phoenix teams airborne.
from the almanac: parker dunked in an NCAA tournament game in 2006, the first woman to do it. twenty years later she is a hall of famer. the sport moves faster than we give it credit for.
What comes next is the part I like most. The ceremony happened the same weekend the league-leading Lynx were out beating the Aces 92-87 behind 23 points and eight assists from Olivia Miles and 19 from Napheesa Collier. The women getting bronzed in Springfield built the runway. Somebody is already taking off on it.