SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts — NBA stars Amar’e Stoudemire and longtime coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers joined seven other basketball figures and teams inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.
The 2026 class also includes former NBA referee Joey Crawford, veteran coaches Mike D’Antoni and Mark Few, and women’s basketball stars Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw.
The unbeaten 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team also received Hall of Fame honors during the ceremony in Springfield.
Rivers, who resigned as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in April, finished his 27-season NBA coaching career with a 1,194-866 record. He coached Orlando, Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
Rivers led the Boston Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship and won the NBA Coach of the Year award with Orlando in 2000. He also guided Milwaukee to the NBA Cup in 2024.
“It’s so funny. Never in my life did I dream that I would be a coach or be good at it,” Rivers said during his induction speech.
Stoudemire, a six-time NBA All-Star and 2003 Rookie of the Year, averaged 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds during a 14-season career with Phoenix, New York, Dallas and Miami.
He became a key player in Phoenix’s fast-paced “Seven Seconds or Less” era under D’Antoni, who later coached him in New York.
D’Antoni earned induction as a contributor after coaching eight seasons in Italy and 16 seasons in the NBA with Denver, Phoenix, New York, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers. He won NBA Coach of the Year honors in 2005 and 2017.
Parker won three WNBA championships and two WNBA Most Valuable Player awards. Delle Donne won two MVP awards and led Washington to the 2019 WNBA championship.
Holdsclaw earned six WNBA All-Star selections after winning three NCAA titles with Tennessee and also won Olympic gold with the U.S. team in 2000.
Crawford officiated in the NBA for 39 seasons from 1977 to 2016. He worked 2,561 regular-season games and 50 NBA Finals games, including every Finals from 1986 through 2015.
Few, the head coach of Gonzaga, became the winningest active coach in U.S. college basketball and has led the Bulldogs to two national championship games.
