NEW YORK (Reuters) – Five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird, WNBA superstar-turned-activist Maya Moore and 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony have been elected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bird is the most decorated player in FIBA history, with four Women’s World Cup golds and one bronze to complement her Olympic medal haul, and she earned a record 13 WNBA All-Star selections in her 21-year career with the Seattle Storm.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Moore powered the Minnesota Lynx to four championship titles before stepping away at the height of her career to devote time to overturning the conviction of a family friend, Jonathan Irons. Irons was just 18 when he was handed a 50-year prison term after wrongly being convicted of burglary and assault.
The 2014 MVP was successful in the effort, inspiring U.S. criminal justice reform advocates in the process, and she later married Irons.
Moore’s Lynx teammate Sylvia Fowles, a four-time Olympic champion, was also inducted.
On the men’s side, Anthony earned inclusion after becoming the first men’s basketball player to earn three Olympic golds. He was the scoring champion for the 2012-13 NBA season.
Three-times NBA defensive player of the year Dwight Howard, the league’s 2020 champion and five-time rebounding leader, was also included.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York)
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