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Kevin pelton
On Saturday, the basketball hall of the fame of Naismmith selected Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame three of the biggest players in the history of women’s basketball in class 2025 star.
After the 2022 season after the 2022 season Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles, they assumed that they headed to the hall together as soon as they were eligible. (In December announced a reduction in waiting time from three whole seasons after leaving for two.)
They joined Moore, who last played in WNBA in 2018 before resigning from the league to work on social justice issues and to help overturn the incorrect beliefs of her future husband Jonathan Iron. After originally retained the door open to return, Moore officially announced their retirement in January 2023.
The timing means three out of the 10 best players in ESPN is the order of the greatest wnba The contributors will enter the Hall of Fame together during the 25th anniversary in 2021 (the class will be officially anchored on September 6). Let’s look at what caused that bird and fowles – who had their numbers to leave Seattle Storm and Minnesota lynxRespectively, on the same day in June 2023-A Moore First-Ballot withdrawals and also the reason why there is no precedent for such a classroom of fame.
Sue bird
Uconne (1998-2002); Seattle Storm (2002-22)
The biggest permanent winner in WNBA, Bird retired, who played in more victory (332) than any other player in the league. Bird longevity was a key factor. She played a record 580 games in the league over two decades, and between 2004 and 2020 she overcame her knee injuries to four Seattle Championship teams, the longest gap between the titles for any WNBA player.
Bird’s legacy also includes being the greatest guards of points in WNBA history. In 2017, Penicheiro surpassed the silence as a league leader in assistance and remains almost 400 assists before Courtney Vandersloot for No. 1 all the time. The ability to control the game as a shooter or distributor was revolutionary when it entered the league as the best selection of a proposal from 2002, earned a decoration of all-curls first-team (the first of eight All-curls) and led the storm to the playoffs as a newcomer.
Before joining WNBA, Bird began in 2000 and 2002 for the UConn National Championship teams, the latter Perhaps the most dominant team in the history of women’s basketball With a record of 39-0 and an average margin of 26.8 points per game in the NCAA tournament. Bird was a consensual national player of the year in 2001-02.
After tending to Diana Tauras in Huskies Backcourt, Bird became the US basketball and won five gold medals from 2004 to 2021. Only Tauras, who added last year, surpassed the Olympic history.
Sylvia fowles
Lsu (2004-08); Chicago Sky (2008-14); Minnesota Lynx (2015-22)
The four-time WNBA of the year, 6-Naha-6 Fowles has a strong case as the biggest defending champion in the league history. Only Tamika Catchings, with five, won more DPOY awards. Fowles is the fourth in WNBA blocks and retired as a leading rebounder league before it was overcome Tina Charles Last season.
Fowles Tigers has led the dominant power since the Fowles Tigers led all four seasons of her college career to the finals and earned an all-curning price four times in seven seasons with the sky. Only after Fowles asked for a business and landed in Minnesota, her talent was fully awarded.
He joined the Lynx team, which has already won titles in 2011 and 2013 – more about it in a moment – Fowles powered Minnesota for two more championships in the next three seasons and appeared as the best player of the team and won the final of the MVP after both titles. In 2017, Fowles was also voted by League MVP.
When the rest of the Lynx team slowly dissolved, Fowles was an accessory. In 2021 at the age of 35, she won her last Defensive Player of the Year Award and finished fourth in the MVP vote this season. And Fowles was the selection of the second All-waita team (and all-defensive selection of the first team) in its last 2022 season.
On the international scene, Fowles joined the Bird for the Four Olympic Gold Medals from 2008 to 2021.
Maya Moore
Uconn (2007-11); Minnesota Lynx (2011-18)
Moore’s too-brief wnba career coincided with the greatest permanent period of the team’s success in the history of the league. During eight seasons, Moore played in Minnesota, Lynx went to the final six times and won four titles, starting with newcomers’ campaigns. The New York Liberty is the only one more franchise This achieved the final six times and lasted two decades after their previous four shows to return Svoboda.
Moore was not the only reason for the success of Lynx. Fowles deserves a huge credit for the back half of the run, while the whole era also included the Hall of Famers Lindsay Whalen (chosen in 2022) and Seimone Augustus (2024), plus the five-time All-Star and the five-time Rebekkah Brunson champion.
Yet Moore’s complete game helped her team to win anywhere. After winning Gatorade National Player of the Year, he won UConn in 2009 and 2010 Back-to-Back Championship, Moore was the most important player of the NCAA 2010. Moore.
No aspect of Moore’s game was as exemplary as Bird’s passage or Fowles defense, but could do everything in court. Moore led WNBA in scoring in 2014 on its way to its only MVP, but probably helped its team as a defender or distributor. Moore shines in advanced statistics to the first selection of the first All-waita team from 2013 to 2017.
Despite her short career, which represented less than half as many games in the regular season as Bird, Moore was second in the playoffs above the replacement player (Warp) by my metric when retired. Due to emphasis on top posts and performance Postseason with Moore in my uploads in fourth place The championships added an estimate During the first 25 seasons of the league – the same place that ranked in our vote.
Moore’s basketball career Moore’s US was again short, but in 2012 and 2016 she won gold medals with Bird and Fowles.
An unprecedented class of women’s players
It is remarkable that this year will mean the first time the three women were put into the Hall of Fame as players in the same class.
Since she first acknowledged players with Lusia Harris and Nera White in 1992, Hall had had eight other multiplayer classes, including the three of the last four years. To date, the best pairing of the players of the former MVPS were Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson in 2021 and the highly valuable duo Katie Smith and Tina Thompson in 2018.
Jackson and Griffith, both in the TOP 13 in the WNBA Top 25 ESPN ranking, closest to the top talent of this year’s group. But all three members of this year’s class ranked in front of Griffith, Smith and Thompson.
Probably the strongest class before this year was preceded by WNBA. In 1993, Hall recognized the legend of UCLA Ann Meyers, the first woman to signed the NBA team, as well as the Soviet star Uljan Semjonov. Two years later, the USC Cheryl Miller SuperStar, Old Dominion Standout was joined in 1995.
As WNBA grows, we can expect larger Hall classes that could reflect men who usually number three to four and have up to six players in a year. Yet it could take a while for the timing for a group decorated as this year’s class.
