Coaches As part of the inaugural class of 1959, three coaches were inducted (
Forrest C. "Phog" Allen,
Henry Clifford Carlson and
Walter E. Meanwell); in total, 100 coaches have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Ten of the inducted coaches were born outside the United States:
Cesare Rubini (Italy, 1994),
Alexander Gomelsky (Soviet Union, now Russia, 1995),
Antonio Díaz-Miguel (Spain, 1997),
Aleksandar "Aca" Nikolić (
Yugoslavia, now
Serbia, 1998),
Geno Auriemma (Italy, 2006),
Alessandro "Sandro" Gamba (Italy, 2006),
Mirko Novosel (Yugoslavia, now
Croatia, 2007),
Pedro Ferrándiz (Spain, 2007),
Lidia Alexeeva (Soviet Union, now Russia, 2012), and
Lindsay Gaze (Australia, 2015). Six of them have won championships in the
EuroLeague or its historic predecessor, the FIBA European Champions Cup. Ten of the inducted coaches are women:
L. Margaret Wade (1985),
Jody Conradt (1998),
Pat Head Summitt (2000),
Sandra Kay Yow (2002),
Sue Gunter (2005),
Cathy Rush (2008),
C. Vivian Stringer (2009),
Tara VanDerveer (2011), Alexeeva (2012), and
Sylvia Hatchell (2013). Five coaches have also been inducted as players:
John Wooden,
Bill Sharman,
Lenny Wilkens,
Tom Heinsohn, and
Bill Russell. Most of the inductees have been college head coaches. Thirty-two have led a team to the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's championship and six have led a team to the
NCAA women's championship. Twenty inductees have coached in the
National Basketball Association (NBA). Twelve of them have won at least one
NBA championship as head coaches; one other,
Don Nelson, has five NBA championships as a player. Additionally,
Bobby "Slick" Leonard won three titles in the former
American Basketball Association.
Larry Brown is the only inductee to coach both a college basketball team and a professional basketball team to a title, having coached the
Kansas Jayhawks (NCAA) and the
Detroit Pistons (NBA) to championships. Six coaching inductees have received the Hall's
John Bunn Award, given annually for significant contributions to the sport—
Red Auerbach,
Henry Iba,
Ray Meyer, Summitt, Wooden, and
Morgan Wootten. Twelve inductees have, either before or after their induction, won an Olympic medal coaching a men's national team to a top-three finish in the
Olympic tournament. Eight coached the
U.S. national team, while the other four coached foreign national teams. Six inductees—Summitt, Yow, Auriemma,
Van Chancellor, VanDerveer, and Alexeeva—have led a women's national team to a top-three finish in the
Olympics. Alexeeva led the
Soviet Union to two golds, while all the others led the
United States to gold medals (Auriemma after his induction, the others before being inducted). The United States and the Soviet Union (including the Unified Team in 1992) are the only two teams to have won the Olympic basketball tournament: the U.S. in 1984, 1988, 1996–2020, and the USSR in 1976, 1980 and 1992. Six individuals inducted as coaches were associated with teams that have been
inducted to the Hall as units.
Donald L. "Don" Haskins, inducted in 1997, was the head coach of the
1966 Texas Western basketball team, which was inducted into the Hall in 2007.
Chuck Daly, inducted in 1994, was the head coach of the
"Dream Team", the
USA team at the
1992 Olympics that featured 11 Hall of Fame players and was inducted as a unit in 2010. Wilkens, inducted as a coach in 1998, and
Mike Krzyzewski, inducted in 2001, were Daly's assistants in 1992.
Dutch Lonborg, inducted in 1973, was team manager for the
1960 U.S. men's Olympic team that was also inducted as a unit in 2010. Cathy Rush, inducted in 2008, was the head coach of the
Immaculata College women's team of 1972–1974 that was inducted in 2014.
Contributors For a person to be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor, they must have made "significant contributions to the game of basketball". The exact number of individuals enshrined as contributors (as well as the number of player inductees) is subject to debate because of the Hall's treatment of 2014 inductee
Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton, one of the first
African Americans to play in the NBA. While he was initially announced as a contributor, the Hall now classifies him as a player inductee. Six inductees in this category were associated with teams that have been
inducted to the Hall as units. Naismith organized
The First Team, the group of players involved in the first-ever basketball game in 1891 and also inducted as part of the inaugural Class of 1959.
Robert L. Douglas, inducted in 1972, was the founder and owner of the
New York Renaissance, inducted in 1963.
Pete Newell, inducted in 1979, was the head coach of the
1960 U.S. Olympic team inducted in 2010. Three were associated with the
Harlem Globetrotters, inducted in 2002.
Abe Saperstein, inducted in 1971, was the team's founder and owner. Kennedy, although best known for his time as NBA commissioner, had been the Globetrotters' public relations director in the 1950s. Lemon, inducted in 2003, was one of the team's most enduring on-court stars. Ten individuals inducted in this category were born outside the United States—Naismith and Newell in Canada, Podoloff and Gottlieb in modern-day
Ukraine (part of the
Russian Empire when they were born in 1890 and 1898 respectively), Douglas in
Saint Kitts and Nevis (part of the
British West Indies at his birth in 1882), Saperstein in the United Kingdom, Biasone and
Renato William Jones in Italy,
Ferenc Hepp in modern-day Hungary (
Austria-Hungary at his birth in 1909), and
Borislav Stanković in what is now
Bosnia and Herzegovina (the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia at his birth in 1925). In total 81 individuals have been inducted as contributors. , inducted in 1959|alt=A black-and-white of a man with a mustache wearing a suit and a tie , inducted in 1959|alt=A black-and-white of a man wearing a suit and a tie looking to the right side
Players As part of the inaugural class of 1959, four players were inducted, including
George Mikan, who was the first NBA player to be enshrined. In total, 177 or 178 players, depending on Nathaniel Clifton's classification, have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of these, 110 or 111, again depending on Clifton's classification, have played in the NBA. Thirty-seven player inductees are women:
Lusia Harris-Stewart (1992),
Nera D. White (1992),
Ann E. Meyers (1993),
Uļjana Semjonova (1993),
Carol A. Blazejowski (1994),
Anne T. Donovan (1994),
Cheryl Miller (1995),
Nancy I. Lieberman (1996),
Joan Crawford (1997),
Denise M. Curry (1997),
Lynette Woodard (2004),
Hortência de Fatima Marcari (2005),
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (2010),
Teresa Edwards (2011),
Katrina McClain Johnson (2012),
Dawn Staley (2013),
Lisa Leslie (2015),
Sheryl Swoopes (2016),
Teresa Weatherspoon (2019),
Tamika Catchings (2020),
Yolanda Griffith (2021),
Lauren Jackson (2021),
Pearl Moore (2021),
Swin Cash (2022),
Theresa Grentz (2022),
Lindsay Whalen (2022),
Becky Hammon (2023),
Seimone Augustus (2024),
Sue Bird (2025),
Sylvia Fowles (2025),
Maya Moore (2025),
Elena Delle Donne (2026),
Chamique Holdsclaw (2026) and
Candace Parker (2026). Among these, Lieberman, Woodard, Cooper-Dyke, Edwards, Staley, Leslie, Smith, Swoopes, Lobo, Thompson, Weatherspoon, Catchings, Griffith, Jackson, Cash, Whalen, Hammon, Augustus, Bird, Fowles, Moore, Delle Donne, Holdsclaw, and Parker have played in the
Women's National Basketball Association. Harris-Stewart is the only female drafted by an NBA team, while Meyers is the only one to have been signed by an NBA team. Two player inductees have won the John Bunn Award—
Bob Cousy and Wooden. Twenty player inductees were born outside the United States. Canadian-born
Robert J. "Bob" Houbregs (inducted 1987) was drafted by NBA's
Milwaukee Hawks in 1953 and played five seasons in the league. Four inductees were born in the former Soviet Union:
Sergei A. Belov,
Šarūnas Marčiulionis,
Arvydas Sabonis, and
Uljana Semjonova. Belov, inducted in 1992, was born in modern-day Russia; Sabonis and Marčiulionis, respectively inducted in 2011 and 2014, were born in today's
Lithuania. All three players won gold medals for the
USSR at the
Olympic Games. Marčiulionis and Sabonis each added two bronze medals for
Lithuania after the
restoration of its independence in 1990; Marčiulionis is also credited by the Hall with resurrecting the Lithuania national team after independence. Semjonova, inducted in 1993, was born in what is now
Latvia. She won two Olympic golds with the
USSR women's team.
Krešimir Ćosić,
Dražen Petrović,
Dražen Dalipagić,
Dino Rađa,
Vlade Divac,
Toni Kukoč and
Radivoj Korać (inducted in 1996, 2002, 2004, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 respectively) represented
Yugoslavia internationally during their careers. Petrović, Rađa and Kukoč represented
Croatia after the initial
breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Italian-born
Dino Meneghin (inducted 2003) spent his entire career playing in the
Italian A League. Three Brazilians have represented their homeland internationally:
Hortência de Fatima Marcari (inducted in 2005) for the
women's national team,
Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira (inducted in 2010) and
Oscar Schmidt (inducted in 2013) for the
men's national team.
Dikembe Mutombo (inducted in 2015) was born in the country now known as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Yao Ming, inducted in 2016, was born and raised in China.
Manu Ginóbili, inducted in 2022, was born and raised in Argentina. He was 4 times NBA champion and won a Gold Medal in
Athens 2004 against the
United States Basketball Team for the first time since NBA players were allowed on the roster American
Dominique Wilkins, inducted in 2006, was born in France during his father's posting in that country as a member of the
U.S. Air Force.
John Isaacs (inducted in 2015) was born in
Panama but raised in
Harlem. Although born in
New Jersey, 2017 inductee
Nikos Galis played the whole of his professional career in
Greece. 2018 inductee
Steve Nash was born in
Johannesburg,
South Africa, and grew up in
Canada.
Referees The Referee category has existed since the beginning of the Hall of Fame and the first referee was inducted in 1959. Since then, eighteen referees have been inducted.
Ernest C. Quigley, born in Canada, is the only inductee in this category born outside of the United States.
Teams The Team category has existed since the beginning of the Hall of Fame and the first teams were inducted in 1959. Four teams were enshrined before 1963, but the fifth was not enshrined until 2002. All told, 14 teams have been inducted, with the most recent being the
2008 United States Olympic Team inducted in 2025. , inducted in 1961 playing at the
1992 Summer Olympics at
Barcelona. The team was inducted in 2010. ==Notes==