A triumvirate of Chicago hoops greats has been named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Per Wilmette’s own Shams Charania of ESPN, two-time WNBA MVPs Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne and 2008 NBA champion head coach Doc Rivers are all set to be enshrined in Springfield this fall.
Parker, a Naperville native, led our Chicago Sky to their first-ever title in 2021. Before her, Delle Donne led Chicago to the WNBA Finals in 2014, although they fell to Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner’s Phoenix Mercury. Both Parker and Delle Donne retired after the 2023 season.
Rivers was a star point guard at Proviso East High School before playing his college ball at Marqueete. He went on to riches, fame and glory, first as an NBA All-Star and later a decorated head coach. He is being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach.
Charania also reports Amar’e Stoudemire will be part of this year’s induction class.
Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News reports that another Hall of Fame finalist with Chicago ties, ’70s-era Bulls head coach Dick Motta, was again denied entry for some inscrutable reason.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY SportsChicago Sky Superstars Delle Donne, Parker Were First-Ballot Shoo-Ins
Delle Donne’s superstardom was a fait accompli well before she went pro. She won three state championships as a basketball prep phenom at Wilmington, Delaware’s Ursuline Academy (plus one volleyball state title for good measure), and then became an NCAA legend at the University of Delaware, 20 miles down the road.
The Sky selected the sharpshooting wing with the No. 2 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft. She almost instantly became one of the league’s best players, guiding Chicago to that aforementioned Finals berth, despite an injury-plagued regular season, in 2014 and earning MVP honors for the first time during just her third pro season, 2015. Delle Donne appeared to be the missing piece for the Sky’s championship aspirations, joining a core that also included fellow future Hall of Famers Sylvia Fowles and (probably) Courtney Vandersloot, plus fellow 3-point sharpshooter Allie Quigley.
Wanting to be closer to her family in Delaware, a restricted free agent Delle Donne demanded a trade to the Washington Mystics during the 2017 offseason. She was flipped to Washington for eventual 2021 Finals MVP small forward Kahleah Copper and former two-time All-Star center Sefanie Dolson, plus the rights to the No. 2 pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft. That eventually became Alaina Coates.
Delle Donne guided Washington to the 2018 WNBA Finals, her second appearance, but they were swept by Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird’s Seattle Storm. She subsequently enjoyed her best season ever in 2019. She earned her second career MVP, led the 26-8 Mystics to the No. 1 seed, made an All-Star squad and an All-WNBA First Team, and became the first woman to join the extremely rare 50/40/90 club as a shooter, connecting on 515/.430/.974 shooting splits. Oh, and Washington went to its second consecutive Finals — but won this time.
Cumulatively, she was a seven-time WNBA All-Star, a five-time All-WNBA honoree, a two-time MVP, a one-time champ, and a member of the WNBA 25th Anniversary Team. Across her 10 pro seasons, she boasts career averages of 19.5 points while slashing .475/.392/.937, 6.7 boards, 1.9 dimes, 1.4 blocks and 0.7 steals. Not too shabby.
Candace Parker, somehow, was even better.
An Illinois prep legend, Parker’s legend began growing as she led her team to a pair of state titles at Naperville Central High School before winning two NCAA titles and two John Wooden Awards with Pat Summit’s Tennessee Volunteers.
Parker grew to national prominence because she did things that had not previously been done. In 2004, Parker became the first female to win the slam dunk contest at the McDonald’s High School All-American Game. Two years later, Parker became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game — and that was 20 years ago.
A great two-way big with a great court sense for her position and an adept face-up bag, Parker was the unquestioned No. 1 pick in 2008. She became a league MVP even faster than Delle Donne — achieving the feat as a rookie with the Los Angeles Sparks! Parker won her second MVP award in 2013.
Next to future first-ballot Hall of Famer Nneka Ogwumike, Parker guided LA to consecutive Finals berths against Maya Moore’s Minnesota Lynx in 2016 and ’17, winning it all in 2016. She was named Finals MVP for her efforts.
Frustrated by middling playoff results, Parker jumped ship to link up with Copper, Vandersloot, All-Star guard Diamond DeShields, Quigley, and Dolson on her hometown Sky as a free agent in 2021.
Despite entering that season’s playoffs as a No. 6 seed with a .500 record, Parker’s championship pedigree helped prompt a red-hot Sky run. Eventually, the Sky bested Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury in a dominant 3-1 Finals win. Chicago narrowly missed out on a second straight Finals berth the following season, after Jonquel Jones’ Connecticut Sun rallied to throttle the Sun, 24-5, in the fourth quarter of a decisive Game 5 semifinals clash.
Parker ditched Chicago to join the loaded Las Vegas Aces as a free agent the next offseason, but missed the second half of the year — including the Aces’ entire champion run during the playoffs — after suffering a foot fracture in July.
In a 16-year WNBA run, Parker notched career regular season averages of 16.0 points on .479/.333/767 shooting splits, 8.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals a night.
All told, Parker boasts three titles with the three different teams, two MVP trophies, seven All-Star appearances, 10 All-WNBA honors, two All-Defensive Second Team nods, the 2020 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award, and was named to both the WNBA 20th and 25th Anniversary Teams.
Although she only played for two seasons with her hometown Sky, Parker very much earned the retirement of her No. 3 jersey in Chicago — which happened in the midst of a game between the Sky and Parker’s next and final club, the Las Vegas Aces, last August.
The Sparks also, unsurprisingly, retired her jersey. Given her brief, injury-plagued Vegas tenure, the jersey retirement tally may stop at two pro teams.
Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesA Tale of Two Champion Coaches in Rivers, Motta
Following a starry collegiate stint at Marquette, Rivers was a one-time All-Star during his 13-year NBA career. As a past-first point guard, Rivers logged his best years with the Atlanta Hawks, but also suited up for the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, and San Antonio Spurs.
But he didn’t get into the Hall because of his playing career. Following a terrific run as a commentator for TNT, Rivers kicked off a legendary head coaching run in the league when he took over for the Orlando Magic ahead of the 1999-2000 season.
He guided a young team led by pre-prime versions of Ron Mercer, Ben Wallace and Corey Maggette (a pre-All-Star Chauncey Billups was acquired in a mid-season trade, but did not play due to injury) to a 41-41 record that so impressed the league at large that it earned Rivers his lone Coach of the Year honor, ahead of first-year Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson.
It should be noted that Orlando didn’t even make the playoffs that season, while Jackson led Lakers superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to their first of three straight titles.
After Orlando rebooted around All-Star wings Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady that summer (and Mercer moved on to put up empty stats for… well, you know), the Magic were expected to compete for titles right away. But Hill’s health challenges impeded that. Instead, the Magic never got out of the first round during the next three seasons, and Rivers was let go 11 games into 2003-04.
Orlando almost poached Hall of Famer Tim Duncan away from the San Antonio Spurs during that fateful 2000 free agency period, too — but Rivers’ policy to not allow players’ families on the team plane ultimately convinced Duncan to stay in San Antonio, according to Hill. Oops.
Following another broadcasting sabbatical, this time for NBC, Rivers latched on with Paul Pierce’s Boston Celtics ahead of the 2004-05 season. Boston did make a run to the playoffs that year, but missed the postseason in ’06 and ’07. The Celtics then pulled off one of the biggest year-over-year roster overhauls in NBA history, bringing in future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to complement Pierce and young incumbents Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins for the 2007-08 season.
Boston was suddenly not just a contender, but the heavy favorite in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics posted a 66-16 record, Garnett earned Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Boston claimed its then-record 16th championship against Jackson’s Lakers. A Garnett injury likely prevented the Celtics from repeating in 2009. Rondo’s emergence as an All-Star the next season helped the No. 4-seeded Celtics return to the NBA Finals the next season, but an injury to Perkins doomed Boston to a Game 7 loss in a grizzly rockfight.
After forcing a rare coach trade during the summer of 2013, Rivers helped the Clippers revamp their reputation from the NBA’s Washington Generals into legit pseudo-contenders. His Hall of Famer-heavy teams never advanced past the second round of the playoffs, and he was eventually let go in 2020. Rivers has since coached the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks to respectable regular season runs and questionable postseason finishes.
He was named to the NBA’s 2021-22 season list of the 15 Greatest Coaches in History, and has finished among the top five in Coach of the Year voting five times for four different teams.
Rivers boasts an overall 1191-861 regular season record, plus a 114-112 playoff record. In 26 completed seasons (we’ll just throw out that 11-game stint with Orlando in 2003-04), Rivers has guided his teams to 21 playoff berths.
Benny Sieu-Imagn ImagesDick Motta enjoyed a decorated 35-season stint as an NBA head coach. He found his best success with the then-Washington Bullets, whom he navigated to consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 1977-78 and 1978-79, including a championship in ’78.
Motta got his start with the early Chicago Bulls, leading the club from 1968-76. He oversaw the team’s most successful run pre-Michael Jordan, including a pair of Western Conference Finals losses in 1973-74 and 1974-75. Those chippy, defense-first squads were led by Chicago legends Bob Love, Chet Walker, Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier.
Motta earned his lone Coach of the Year nod in 1971, after leading the Bulls to a 51-31 record and a playoff appearance. The Bulls went 356-300 in the regular season and 18-29 in the playoffs during his eight years with the team.
Rivers obviously deserves to be wrapped in glory and commemorated forever in the Hall. But so does Motta. One wonders if he’ll ever make the cut while he’s still kicking.
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