A brand new class of honorees might be enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame throughout Saturday’s ceremony, additional cementing the legacy of among the most iconic males’s and girls’s basketball gamers. On the boys’s aspect, the honorees characteristic Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, whereas the ladies’s aspect will induct a trio of legendary gamers in Maya Moore, Sue Fowl and Sylvia Fowles. Additionally getting inducted are NBA and former collegiate basketball coach Billy Donovan, your complete 2008 USA males’s nationwide group and Miami Warmth proprietor Micky Arison.

Forward of the ceremony, this is a breakdown of the 5 gamers getting inducted.

Carmelo Anthony

A ten-time All Star, six-time All-NBA recipient and a member of the NBA’s seventy fifth Anniversary Workforce, Anthony’s illustrious accomplishments span his collegiate, skilled and Olympic profession. Anthony’s lone faculty season at Syracuse was about as storybook because it will get. He entered his freshman 12 months as one of many prime prospects within the nation, both No. 1 or No. 2 relying on which recruiting rating you used. He swept up just about each award possible in a freshman 12 months the place he averaged 22.2 factors and 10 rebounds to steer Syracuse to a nationwide championship. His single season was so dominant that he slotted fifth in CBS Sports activities’ rating of the greatest faculty basketball gamers of the final 25 years.

Anthony continued that dominant play within the NBA, the place he was taken with the third decide within the 2003 draft by the Denver Nuggets. He completed with profession averages of twenty-two.5 factors and 6.2 rebounds in 19 seasons with the Nuggets, Knicks, Thunder, Rockets, Path Blazers and Lakers. Although a championship evaded him within the NBA, Anthony did acquire a ton of {hardware} enjoying for Workforce USA in 4 Olympic video games. He nonetheless holds the file for many factors in a single recreation by a Workforce USA member with 37, has appeared within the second-most video games, and is certainly one of simply three gamers to gather 4 Olympic medals together with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

Dwight Howard

Exterior of Shaquille O’Neal, there wasn’t a extra dominant conventional middle within the final 25 years than Howard. Bursting on the scene in 2004 after making the leap from highschool straight to the NBA, Howard was taken No. 1 total by the Orlando Magic and proceeded to turn into a double-double machine. He is the one participant in NBA historical past to have gained Defensive Participant of the Yr three consecutive instances, was an eight-time All Star and eight-time All-NBA choice and was the rebounding champion 5 instances. Howard is probably greatest identified to informal NBA audiences for his Dunk Contest performances, successful the crown in 2008 on the heels of his mind-blowing “Superman” dunk.

Howard’s profession noticed a number of highs and lows, and it wasn’t till his second stint with the Lakers that he reached the final word aim, successful a championship throughout the 2020 Orlando bubble. Howard additionally has a gold medal to his identify, having gained with Workforce USA on the 2008 Olympics, in any other case generally known as the “Redeem Workforce.”

Maya Moore

There are only a few basketball gamers, males or girls, who’ve gained greater than Moore at each degree. One take a look at her Wikipedia web page and you will find your self scrolling eternally to succeed in the top of her accolades, each on and off the court docket. Simply to make it fast, let’s checklist out among the main ones:

• 4-time WNBA champion
• Two-time Olympic gold medalist
• Two-time NCAA champion
• Two-time EuroLeague champion
• WNBA MVP
• WNBA Finals MVP
• Six-time WNBA All Star
• 5-time All-WNBA first group
• WNBA Rookie of the Yr
• WNBA twentieth Anniversary group
• WNBA twenty fifth Anniversary group

And that is not even half of the awards to her identify. The craziest half is that Moore achieved all of that on the skilled degree in simply eight years. So, for 50% of her WNBA profession she gained a championship. There are actually only a few gamers who can say that — in reality, the one one which involves thoughts is Invoice Russell, who gained a title in all however two years over a 13-year profession.

After primarily conducting all the things an individual may in basketball, Moore stepped away from the sport in 2019 with a view to concentrate on legal justice reform. Whereas initially thought of a hiatus, Moore didn’t return to basketball and formally retired in January 2023. All through her basketball profession, and much more so throughout her time away from the game, Moore grew to become a distinguished activist, serving to to free a person, her now-husband Jonathan Irons, from jail who was wrongfully convicted of homicide after serving 22 years of a 50-year sentence. Moore’s No. 23 jersey was retired by the Minnesota Lynx in August 2024.

Sue Fowl

From the school to the professionals, there are few extra recognizable girls’s basketball gamers than Fowl. A four-time WNBA champion, in addition to a two-time NCAA champion, the longevity of Fowl’s profession — spending all 21 of her WNBA seasons with the Seattle Storm — is unmatched. She’s the one participant in WNBA historical past to win a championship in three completely different many years, and she or he grew to become the oldest participant to finish a complete season at age 41 in 2022. She holds the file for many WNBA video games performed ever at 580, is the all-time help chief with 3,234 and ranks ninth in whole profession factors.

Nobody has as many All-Star choices as Fowl, whereas she ranks second in 3-pointers made and likewise ranks within the prime 10 all-time for steals, fewest turnovers and discipline targets made. Although she by no means gained an MVP award, these Storm groups by no means would have gained all 4 of these titles with out her management.

Sylvia Fowles

Solely two gamers in WNBA historical past have gained Defensive Participant of the Yr 4 or extra instances: Tamika Catchings (5) and Fowles (4). Over her 15-year profession, Fowles established herself as one of the crucial dominant facilities the league has ever seen. She ranks second all-time in rebounds and fourth in blocks. She’s a two-time WNBA champion and two-time Finals MVP, a league MVP and earned 11 All-Defensive honors in addition to eight All-Star appearances.

She was a mainstay on the ladies’s Olympic group, successful gold medals 5 instances for Workforce USA, and shaped a dominant trio with Moore and Seimone Augustus on these championship Lynx groups. Fowles’ No. 34 jersey is retired by each the Lynx and her alma mater of LSU, the place she was a two-time All-American, incomes SEC Participant of the Yr and SEC Defensive Participant of the Yr in her senior season.