KNOXVILLE, TENN. – The high point of last weekend’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (WBHOF) induction ceremony besides the pomp and circumstance are the inductees’ origin stories told in humbling ways.
Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Cheryl Reeve headlined the Class of 2026, along with players Amaya Valdemoro and Isabelle Fijalkowski who made their mark on the international stage; successful junior college Coach Kim Muhl; and broadcaster Doris Burke.
All spoke last Saturday except Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, who died at age 58 from cancer in 2018. Her husband and high school sweetheart, Marvin Dixon, spoke on her behalf.
“I was impressed with my presenter. She really set the stage,” Dixon told us afterwards of Valerie Still, Class of 2019. Still said of Barbara, “Her impact on this world is permanent. Your legacy will never be forgotten.”
Parker said in her speech, “Whatever uniform I wore, winning was always the mission.”
Lindsay Whalen (2023) in introducing Reeve: “I would not be in the Hall of Fame without her. Together we built a dynasty in the WNBA. At the center of it all was Cheryl Reeve.”
In thanking coaches, players, family, and even Lynx fans, the longtime Lynx Head Coach said, “My greatest win is you,” paying brief homage to her 10-year-old son.
The day before their induction, MSR talked to Dixon, Reeve and Parker.
“If she was here right now today, she’d be finding more out about you than you trying to find out about her because she never did speak on herself,” said Marvin of his late wife.
Barbara Kennedy was a star at Clemson (1978-82) in the old AIAW then the NCAA, where she became among the few women’s players to score more than 3,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. She then played in the WBA, one of the early U.S. women’s pro basketball leagues that came and went, and in Italy for two years before that.
Now Kennedy-Dixon, she returned to Clemson where she served in various roles, including assistant coach, senior women’s administrator and assistant athletic director for athletic academic services until her health took her away.
“She left a legacy there at Clemson,” Dixon pointed out proudly, “loved her career … while she was there. She had a serving heart and the love that she had… it was about people.”
“I tell everybody I hadn’t done anything famous but marry her, that’s my claim to fame,” stressed Marvin.
Parker was the other Black woman in the WBHOF Class of 2026: from high school, college and the pros, she made her mark as a two-time NCAA champion at Tennessee, a three-time WNBA champion with Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas, and two-time Olympic gold medalist with a slew of honors and awards.
“We talk about our teammates and they’re the ones that got us here 100%,” Parker told MSR. “I’m super grateful for the class that I came in here at Tennessee, and all the teammates I played professionally, in the Olympics and all of that.”
But the HOFer wanted it known that it also was the competition that made her great, “that gets overlooked, like Sylvia Fowles and myself. We’ve been playing against each other since we were 13 years old; she went in last year in the Class of 2025. We’re almost identical in every single category, and I think she made me raise my game. She made me elevate like the basketball player that I am, and I think those are the competitors that really lift you and are able to be a part of your journey.”
Five Minnesota Lynx players she coached are in the Hall. Reeve, who will soon be the WNBA’s winningest coach, is one of 13 current Hall of Famers who also have been WNBA head coaches, including Teresa Weatherspoon, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Carolyn Peck and Cheryl Miller.
When will Rebekkah Brunson join fellow Lynx players Fowles, Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus and Taj McWilliams-Franklin, and their coach, in the WBHOF? “I told Rebekkah on the way down here that is my mission” to get her inducted, said Reeve. “She’s the one who got the most (championship) rings of any player that ever played. I believe her time is coming.”
Carol Gaston of Charlotte, N.C. was among the many volunteers at the WBHOF weekend. She told MSR that it was her fourth year. “Just meeting people from all over the world,” she said, ranks high among her thrills of working the annual event. “I just hope that all our young girls that are playing ball, high school [and] college girls, can take the time to come to the Hall of Fame to witness this,” she advises.
After last Saturday’s ceremony, MSR ran into former WNBA Executive Renee Brown.
“It is just a great class,” she concluded. “I think with all of them and what they’ve done for women’s basketball, they are even greater people. I could not be happier for this group.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
Copyright © Charles Hallman