Sports

Sue Bird, Dirk Nowitzki lead 2026 FIBA Hall of Fame class

Basketball legend Sue Bird will be part of the FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2026, it was announced Sunday.

Bird, whose basketball career spanned more than two decades, helped Team USA earn four FIBA Women’s World Cup titles and five consecutive Olympic gold medals. In the WNBA, she and the Seattle Storm won four championships in 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020. In 2025, she was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and had her number 10 retired at UConn. She had also been named the first managing director of the Team USA Basketball Women’s National Team.

Six players and one coach will join the class of 2026, who will be enshrined on April 21, 2026, in Berlin, Germany. The list of honorees includes NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki, Céline Dumerc, Hedo Türkoğlu, Clarisse Machanguana, Wang Zhizhi, Ismenia Pauchard and coach Ludwik Miętta-Mikołajewicz.

Previous FIBA Hall of Fame classes

  • 2025: Dawn Staley, Mike Krzyzewski, Alphonse Bilé, Andrew Bogut, Leonor Borrell, Pau Gasol, Fadi El Khatib, Ticha Penicheiro, Ratko Radovanovic
  • 2024: Miao Lijie, Reggie Miller, Danira Nakic-Bilic, Kirk Samula Penney, Romain Sato, Skaidrite Smildzina-Budovska, Pedja Stojakovic, Dan Peterson
  • 2023: Alessandro ‘Sandro’ Gamba, Valérie Garnier, Sony Hendrawan, Carlos ‘Caloy’ Loyzaga, Wlamir Marques, Katrina McClain, Yao Ming, Yuko Oga, Zurab Sakandelidze, Penny Taylor, Amaya Valdemoro, Angelo Victoriano
  • 2022: Geno Auriemma, Antonio Carlos Barbosa, Lisa Leslie, Robyn Maher, Mame Maty Mbengue, Maria Planas, Catarina Pollini, Jurgita Streimikyte-Virbickiene, Milan Ciga Vasojevic
  • 2021: Chuck Daly, Mathiei Faye, Panagiotis Giannakis, Zheng Haixia, Hana Horáková, Stanislav Kropilák, Tom Maher, Ettore Messina, Oscar Moglia, Detlef Schrempf, Penka Stoyanova, Sergey Tarakanov
  • 2020: Isabelle Fijalkowski, Mieczysław Łopatka, Ruben Magnano, Steve Nash, Ágnes Németh, Shin-Ja Park, Modestas Paulauskas, Svetislav Pesic, Kenichi Sako, Tara Vanderveer, Alexander Volkov, Jure Zdovc
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