Candace Parker is one of eight members elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2026 class, the hall announced Oct. 30.
The Lady Vols basketball legend is entering the hall of fame in her first year of eligibility.
Advertisement
Parker retired in April 2024 after 16 seasons in the WNBA. The 6-foot-4 forward was a two-time WNBA MVP, a three-time WNBA champion and a 10-time All-WNBA selection.
Parker will be joined by WNBA great Elena Delle Donne, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve and NBA analyst Doris Burke, international players Isabelle Fijalkowski and Amaya Valdemoro, Kirkwood Community College coach Kim Muhl and veteran player Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, who’s being honored posthumously.
The class will be inducted on June 27, 2026 at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville.
Parker had her No. 3 jersey retired by both the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky this summer. Her jersey has been retired at Tennessee, where she starred for the Lady Vols from 2004-08, since 2014.
Advertisement
Parker is the only player in league history to win WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season in 2008, the same summer she won her first of two Olympic gold medals. She retired as the only player in league history to rank in the top 10 all-time in points, assists, rebounds and blocks.
Her years in the WNBA were preceded by an illustrious career at Tennessee playing for legendary coach Pat Summitt. Parker led the Lady Vols to back-to-back national championships in 2007 and 2008, winning Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four both years.
Candace Parker career highlights
Parker’s accolades in college include winning the Wooden Award, the Honda Award and USBWA Player of the Year twice (2007, 2008). She also won AP Player and Female Athlete of the Year (2008), the Naismith Award (2008), the Wade Trophy (2007) and SEC Player of the Year (2007). She was a three-time All-American, two-time SEC Tournament MVP and SEC Freshman of the Year. Parker won three SEC championships at UT.
Advertisement
In high school, Parker was named Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year and a McDonald’s All-American. She also started dunking at age 15 and became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game as a redshirt freshman.
Parker’s WNBA career was historic. She was the first player to win a WNBA championship with three different teams, the first player to record multiple triple-doubles in a single season and the first player to eclipse 6,000 points, 3,000 rebounds and 1,500 assists in their career. She also earned two All-Defensive team nods and won Defensive Player of the year in 2020.
Parker was the No. 1 overall pick in 2008 when she was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks, where she played for 13 seasons. She won her first WNBA title with the Sparks in 2016 when she was named Finals MVP.
Parker, a seven-time All-Star, then brought her hometown Chicago Sky their first championship in 2021. Her third title came with the Las Vegas Aces in what ended up being her final season, which was ended early due to an injury that Parker never returned from.
Advertisement
Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2026 class
Delle Donne is a two-time WNBA MVP and won the 2019 WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics. She became the first player in WNBA history to finish a regular season with a 50-40-90 shooting split in 2019 when she won her second MVP.
Reeve owns the most career wins (364) and playoff wins (52) of any coach in WNBA history. She coached one of the greatest dynasties in the WNBA, leading the Lynx to four championships between 2011-17. Reeve also coached the U.S. women’s national team to a record eighth-straight Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Burke, who’s in the Naismith Hall of Fame, made history when she called the 2024 NBA Finals, making her the first woman to be a television analyst for any major American men’s sports championship event. Burke got her start in women’s basketball as an analyst for Big East games and then as the primary radio and television voice of the New York Liberty.
Advertisement
Valdemoro is a three-time WNBA champion with the Houston Comets (1998, 1999, 2000). Her long list of international accomplishments include playing in two Olympic Games for Spain and winning the Spanish League eight times.
Fijalkowski is the all-time leading scorer of the French national team (2,562 points in 204 games), and she is a five-time French League champion. She was also the European MVP and French League MVP in 1996-97 and the Italian League MVP in 1998-99.
Muhl is currently in his 36th season as Kirkwood Community College coach. He owns an overall record of 1,045-171 and has won nine NJCAA Division II championships.
Kennedy-Dixon played for Clemson from 1978-82 and scored 3,113 career points, which rank seventh all-time in women’s college basketball. She was a two-time All-American and holds the Clemson and ACC career records in scoring, rebounds (1,252), field goals (1,349) and field goal attempts (2,688).
Advertisement
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Candace Parker highlights Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2026 class
