Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore Headline 2025 Hall of Fame Class
By Rob Peterson, Jenna West and Rebecca Tauber
Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles crowned their illustrious careers by being named to the Naismith Memorial basketball renowned temple as part of the 2025 class announced during the Male Four in San Antonio on Saturday.
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“It’s a great honor. I am so happy, guy, it’s crazy. I got to paradise,” said Howard, tearing himself apart in an interview on ESPN after the announcement.
The 2025 class also includes coach Billy Donovan, who won two national championships in Florida and is the current long -standing coach of the Chicago Bulls; The longtime referee of the NBA, Danny Crawford, who officiated more than 2,000 NBA games on 32 seasons, including 30 final games; And the owner of Miami Heat, Micky Arison, who saw his franchise win three titles (2006, 2012, 2013) and seven championships of the Eastern Conference, including four consecutive from 2011 to 2014. The 2008 buyout team which took gold at the Beijing Olympic Games will also be inducted.
Jeff Twiss, the longtime public relations director of the Boston Celtics, has received the John Bunn Prize, the highest in the overall room in the range in the room itself. He has been with the franchise for over 40 years and is considered one of the great professionals on the side of the players’ media division.
Melo does not need an NBA title to enter the room
There had been recent Scuttlebutt online concerning the references of the Anthony renowned temple because he had never won an NBA title. (He never appeared in a NBA final, even less won a ring.)
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But let’s be real here: Anthony entering the temple of fame during his first test should not surprise anyone who has paid attention. In 2003, he was appointed most remarkable player in the Final Four before directing Syracuse for his sole title of Male NCAA. Selected third of the legendary draft of the 2003 NBA, Anthony used one of the most silky shooting strokes to accumulate 28,289 points, 10th on the NBA career score list. He is also quadruple Olympic Male basketball medalist, including three in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
The list of players who have scored more than 28,000 points and won a title of the NCAA, a score title of the NBA (28.7 points per game in 2013) and three Olympic gold medals is part of one: Anthony.
In a “Ringz” culture, it would be easy to quote the absence of an NBA championship (“I am at peace,” said Anthony in Sports illustrated in 2023) on the 19-year career curriculum vitae in Anthony or a major individual prize (a top-three MVP in 2013) as reason to minimize its information traits. However, the All-Star at 10 times and the All-NBA player six times have built a theater career, or even any, can correspond.
Howard built his curriculum vitae at the start of his career
Like Anthony, there have been questions about the value of the Howard’s renown temple while people highlight his trip at the end of their careers. He played for six teams in seven seasons (including the Los Angeles Lakers twice, winning a title with them in the bubble 2020) and set up pedestrian numbers (11.1 points per game, 10.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 433 games). It was even canceled twice, once by Brooklyn in 2018 and once by Memphis in 2019, without playing a game for one or the other franchise.
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But Howard built his curriculum vitae for Springfield, Mass., At the start of his career. The Orlando Magic tabuated Howard with the choice n ° 1 in 2004, and it had an immediate impact for the franchise. He played 567 of the 574 games in his first seven seasons, led the Magic to the 2009 NBA final and won the defensive player of the year in three consecutive seasons from 2009 to 2011. From the 2007-08 season, he led the NBA in the rebounds five of the six seasons, was appointed First Team All-Nba for five consecutive seasons and was high MVP for four seasons of consequences.
Howard also led the NBA in blocks in 2009 and 2010. His three Dpoy prizes place him second behind Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert, who each have four. Wallace and Mutombo are in the fame of fame; Gobert is still in the NBA. Howard’s 14,627 rebounds put him 10th on the NBA career list, and his 2,228 blocks place him 13th all time.
Add eight All-Star selections, eight All-NBA teams and an Olympic gold medal in 2008 during his 18-year-old career, it is easy to see why Howard heads for the room. –
Bird enters naive as a chief of assistance
Bird enters the room after retiring from a 21 -year -old career with the Seattle storm, during which she won four WNBA titles. From 2002 to his retirement in 2022, Bird collected 3,234 assists at the head of the League and appeared in 580 games.
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Before the storm selected it with the first choice of the 2002 draft, Bird was a star in Uconn, guiding the Huskies to two NCAA titles. She also has Olympic gold medals from five consecutive summer games.
“At the same time as I think of the next generation, inspiring them, I think of those who preceded and inspired myself,” said Bird in an ESPN interview after the announcement.
Moore has built a heritage on and off the field
Moore won four WNBA championships with Minnesota Lynx, who drafted her with choice No. 1 in 2011. She was the most useful player in the League and won the WNBA final MVP in 2013. Moore also won two Olympic gold medals for the United States
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“It’s just such a humiliating thing because it really makes you feel the size of the basketball family,” said Moore on ESPN.
Moore was a member of the 90-game Uconn victories sequence, going 150-4 with the Huskies during his university career.
In 2019, Moore interrupted his career to defend the reform of criminal justice, helping to release her husband, Jonathan Irons, from prison due to an unjustified conviction. Moore was also a leader in lynx demonstrations against police brutality in 2016, helping to prepare the ground for an increase in political activism through WNBA in the years to come.
Fowles stood out with a dominant defense, double-doubles
Fowles was double champion with the lynx and a double MVP of the WNBA final. She won four Olympic gold medals for the United States and is a star eight times during her 15 seasons in the League. She was the defensive player of the League year four times and led the WNBA in blocks twice.
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Fowles is second in the career of the WNBA rebounds at 4,006. At university, she led LSU at four appearances in the Final Four before being drafted second in 2008 by the Chicago Sky.
In 2018, Fowles became the first lynx player to obtain a 20 -point statistics line and 20 rebounds, with 23 points and 20 rebounds in a match against the Dallas wings.
“I do not think that none of us come in this thought that we are going to be the temple of fame,” said Fowles on ESPN. “You just do your job, and you go there and you have fun and you like the business, and then when everything is said and done, the work is over. And here we are.”
Devote “the buyout team”
Between the beginnings of the dream team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the United States basketball male team was a dominant force in international basketball, winning three Olympic gold medals and the 1994 FIBA World Championship. This domination ended in 2002 with a sixth place at the FIBA World Championships, the first time that NBA professionals have lost in an international competition. (NBA players were locked in 1998 and were not allowed to participate in the FIBA World Championships that year.)
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During the 2004 Athens Games, the male team was filled with talents – Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Anthony and Dwyane Wade – and finished with a bronze medal.
With this third place, American basketball was determined to resume the status of gold medal and began to demand multi-year players of players to build a better organizational culture. With James, Anthony and Wade who were committed through the 2006 FIBA World Championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, this trio saw the United States finish third in 2006.
In 2008, with these three cornerstone stones, Team USA added Chris Bosh and, above all, Kobe Bryant in their quest to resume Olympic Gold. Bryant provided a competitive advantage shaved to a group of young players who needed it. The team, also with the future temple of renown Jason Kidd and Howard, won its five pool game games on average 32.2 points. In the sleeves of the medal, the Americans crushed Australia by 30 and Argentina by 20 in the semi-final before defeating Spain 118-107 in what is considered by some as one of the biggest basketball games ever played.
The acquisition team is the third US Olympic Male Olympic team dedicated to Springfield, with the 1960 gold medal team with Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, and the dream team.
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This article originally appeared in Athletics.
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