Nicky Anosike traveled around the world playing basketball after her career with Lady Vols basketball was over.
The former Tennessee star played in the WNBA for five seasons, but her professional career took her overseas, too. When Anosike retired, she moved to Florida and became a public school teacher like she had always planned. But it didn’t feel quite right.
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“Although I enjoyed everywhere that I lived, nothing felt like home,” Anosike said. “I decided maybe going back to Knoxville would give me that feeling of home again – the feeling that I had missed, the feeling that I hadn’t had since college. And so I decided to come back, and I found the home I was looking for.”
Anosike won national championships in 2007 and 2008 alongside Tennessee legend Candace Parker. Anosike returned to her alma mater to be a graduate assistant on former Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick’s staff in 2018.
She made Knoxville her home ever since, and because of her contributions to the community and her basketball career, Anosike was selected as part of the 2025 class for the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. Anosike and the rest of the class will be inducted in a ceremony on Aug. 21.
Knoxville is Anosike’s home now. It’s where she spent her first four years of adulthood, and where her children were born.
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“I’ve met so many milestones here in Knoxville and it’s become my home. It’s become my community,” Anosike said. “To receive this type of award here, surrounded by people who I love and people who love me, I was proud, and I felt honored.”
Since returning to Knoxville, Anosike has held multiple positions in the Knoxville community. She was the Anderson County girls basketball coach from April 2020 to December 2021, rebuilding the locker room and re-establishing the program before stepping away after giving birth to her twin sons.
Anosike became the athletic director for Girls Inc., a nonprofit based in Oak Ridge, in 2023. She revamped its athletic programs and consistently connected the girls at the nonprofit with Tennessee athletes. Anosike worked with Tennessee softball players to run clinics and had the Lady Vols basketball team volunteer to run a camp. She also organized a trip to get Girls Inc. to a Lady Vols basketball game.
When Anosike was a four-year starter for legendary coach Pat Summitt from 2004-08, she never would have imagined making Knoxville her home. She didn’t think too far into the future when she left New York as an 18-year-old.
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“I was really just trying to win championships at that point, but now I’m being a champion in life here also,” Anosike said. “It really is bringing everything full circle.”
Anosike started in 133 of 146 games at UT, averaging 7.5 points and 6.3 rebounds over her career. She earned All-Final Four team accolades during both Tennessee’s championship runs, which is still the last time the Lady Vols have been to the Final Four or won an NCAA title.
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Summitt’s influence on her went far beyond basketball. Anosike soaked up life lessons simply by being around Summitt because of the person she was. She learned the importance of being a person of integrity by witnessing how Summitt carried herself on a daily basis.
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Whenever Anosike is contemplating a decision, she hears Summitt’s voice in her head.
“I hear her saying, ‘You can do it. Go do it. What’s stopping you?’ … I don’t have feelings of not being able to accomplish anything, because I always hear her voice, kind of in a matter of fact way, saying, ‘Of course you can do it. Go for it,’ ” Anosike said. “And so she walks with me every step that I take, because she just had that much of an influence on me.”
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nicky Anosike: Lady Vols star had Pat Summitt influence, made Knoxville home
