Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd have waited a long time for this moment. 

UConn’s one-two punch of Bueckers and Fudd came close to winning it all in 2022, but the Huskies fell short to South Carolina in the championship game. Despite the 64-49 blowout loss, the future looked bright for UConn and its dynamic duo. But as fate would have it, that loss would end up being the last March Madness game Bueckers and Fudd would play together for the next 1,084 days due to a string of devastating injuries.

Now, Bueckers, 23, and Fudd, 22, have led the No. 2 Huskies back to the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament national championship game, where they will face the defending champion Gamecocks for the chance to win the program’s record 12th title on Sunday in Tampa, Florida. It’s a full-circle moment for the veterans.

“To be here at this stage is really rewarding,” Bueckers said Saturday, after dropping 16 points in UConn’s 85-51 Final Four win over No. 1 UCLA on Friday. “To both be doing what we love after all we’ve both been through, I’m sure if you asked her, she wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change it just because of how it shaped us and how it’s shaped our mentality, how it shaped our faith and belief in everything that happens for a reason.”

Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd: From teammates to family

Buckers and Fudd first met in 2017 while trying out for the USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team. The budding hoopers both made the team, alongside the likes of Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, and led the U.S. to gold in the 2017 FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship in Argentina. Fudd, who was only 14 at the time, dropped a team-high 18 points in the gold medal game. A friendship bloomed between the two, and after Bueckers’ breakout freshman campaign at UConn in 2021, the Naismith College Player of the Year went into full recruiting mode to convince Fudd to team up with her in Storrs, Connecticut.

“(Bueckers) actually made this one video… of her high school highlights of her passing to people and she showed it to my family,” Fudd recalled in 2021. “She sat down, airdropped it to the TV and said, ‘This is what I’ll be doing to Azzi. This is all the passes I’ll get her if she comes to UConn next year, she’ll get all these open shots.’ I’m just shaking my head, my parents are laughing. But it was a Paige moment.”

Bueckers got her wish and Fudd committed to UConn in 2021. The Huskies went 30-6 during Fudd’s freshman season and advanced all the way to the national championship game, where they suffered a wire-to-wire loss to Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks. Then, back-to-back devastating injuries upended everything. Bueckers missed the entire 2022-23 season after tearing her left ACL during a pickup game ahead of her junior year. Fudd missed all but two games in the 2023-24 season after tearing her right ACL at practice.

INJURY HISTORY: UConn guard Azzi Fudd suffered several setbacks on road to Final Four

Bueckers applauded Fudd’s tenacity and resilience — ‘Azzi has done a remarkable job of overcoming trials in her life. And however that looks like, injury, illness, whatever it is, we know nothing beats Azzi’ — and said their shared experiences brought them closer on and off the court.

‘Just having those bonded and shared experiences with each other — trauma, good stuff, bad stuff, celebrations, sad days — it just bonds you immensely,’ Bueckers added. ‘It just makes you so connected.’

No Brussels sprouts before bedtime

Bueckers and Fudd will both suit up for the second national championship game of their career. When asked what experience she can pull from the 2022 title game, Fudd had a surprising answer: ‘I want to leave that game in the past and do nothing the same.’

Fudd was limited to three points in 16 minutes in UConn’s 64-49 loss to South Carolina after coming down with ‘food poisoning’ the night prior to the big game. ‘I was up all night throwing up and it was awful… The doctor tried to put an IV in me. They used every needle they had because they couldn’t find a vein. I was so dehydrated. And I hate needles, so that was traumatic on its own. I was exhausted during the game. Already nervous, worried about how I was going to play. I was so tired. I felt like I was pulling a truck,’ Fudd recalled on Saturday.

The culprit? ‘I’m not going to have Brussels sprouts (Saturday), because I had a Brussels sprout come out my nose (in 2022),’ Fudd said with a laugh, adding, ‘too much information.’

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma remembered the loss from three years ago, which marks his only loss in 12 total championship appearances: ‘Azzi played like two minutes, three minutes, and was vomiting all morning. Paige is the only player here that actually played in that game. I remember going out to the game, talking to our coaches before we went into the locker room, I said, one of two things is going to happen tonight. We’re either going to win a close game maybe in double overtime… or we’re going to get blown out. This is not going to be one of those, you know, we lost by 10. And I was right.’

The Huskies are hoping for a better outcome on Sunday. It will mark the last time Bueckers and Fudd will play together in a UConn jersey, win or lose. Fudd is returning to UConn for a fifth and final season, while Bueckers declared for the 2025 WNBA Draft, where she’s widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick.

‘We prayed, we prepared, and we hoped to be playing on the last day of the season. We got that opportunity. We don’t want to take it for granted,’ Bueckers said Friday. Fudd added, ‘We’re capable of so much more, the sky’s the limit for us and making sure we tap into that every single night and we never get complacent.’

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Caitlin Clark is back in the women’s national championship game. Sort of.

No, the former Iowa star isn’t playing, but she’ll be part of the broadcast for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament title game between Connecticut and South Carolina. ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show,’ hosted by retired legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, has been ESPN’s alternate broadcast for the women’s Final Four and features special guests joining to talk about the game.

In the biggest game of the college basketball season, it only makes sense for arguably the biggest women’s basketball star to join the show. While we are sure to get some great basketball insight, there’s usually some hijinks with the former UConn stars; there’s bound to be some silliness when the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer joins in on the fun.

Here’s what to know about Clark’s appearance on the ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show.’

What is ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show?’

‘The Bird and Taurasi Show’ is an alternate telecast aired at the same time as the main broadcast for the national championship game. The show features commentary from WNBA legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi live from Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, alongside guests.

How to watch ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show’

When does ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show’ start?

‘The Bird and Taurasi Show’ starts at 3 p.m. ET, the same time as the national championship game.

When will Caitlin Clark appear on ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show?’

It hasn’t been announced when Clark will specifically join the show. This will be updated once ESPN announces Clark’s arrival time.

SAN ANTONIO – For the last year, every day his feet have touched a basketball floor, J’Wan Roberts has finished that day’s work with 150 made free throws.

Not free throws, total. The makes, plus however many he misses on his way to 150.  

Roberts isn’t alone. It’s a dedicated practice for Houston’s players, so engrained in team behavior coach Kelvin Sampson tasks a graduate assistant with delivering final shooting percentages to him afterward.

There’s history behind it — specifically last year’s Sweet 16 loss to Duke, when Houston shot 9-of-17 from the free-throw line. Roberts, then a fifth-year senior, accounted for five of those eight misses, internalizing his mistakes and the ways they could have changed a one-possession loss.

“Maybe we weren’t ready to make them then,” Sampson mused in the small hours of Sunday morning.

That was a year and a week ago. Even allowing for 100 days off between then and now — probably a generous estimate — that’s more than 39,000 made free throws since that night in Dallas.

You make them to wash away the taste of failure. You make them, as Sampson said, because “you prepare for moments like this, when everybody’s watching, in those moments when nobody is.”

You make them for moments like this.

How Houston’s comeback against Duke started

Houston’s 14-point comeback against Duke, in a 70-67 win Saturday night made historic by the deficit and unbelievable to the naked eye, is the fifth-largest in the history of the Final Four.

Of course, the ugly truth of incredible comebacks is they probably started badly, and No. 1 seed Houston was certainly guilty here. The Cougars fell behind midway through the first half, shooting poorly and, almost unbelievably, getting outworked on the glass. Duke’s lead stretched to double digits before Houston shot its way back just before halftime.

Here, Sampson reminded his team about being down five at the half against Purdue in this year’s Sweet 16. About the comeback at Arizona, or even better, the one at Kansas, when the Jayhawks led by six in Lawrence with 70 seconds left and Houston’s win probability cratered to 0.4% on KenPom and the Cougars still won in double overtime.

Mostly, Sampson emphasized the need to clean up the defensive mistakes, and win the possession battle by outworking Duke for second-chance rebounds.

“We played like crap, we’re down six,” Sampson said, returning to the present. “What’s the problem? There’s 20 more minutes.”

And still, it got worse before it got better.

At no point Saturday did Houston shoot the ball particularly well. With the exception of L.J. Cryer — whose 26 points kept his team from drowning — only one other Cougars player attempted more than one field goal and made 50% of them.

When Duke’s lead crested at 14, Houston looked like a team fighting for its life possession after possession.

Which meant Houston wasn’t dead.

“It ain’t over,” Cryer said postgame, “because they’ve still got time on the clock.”

How Houston’s comeback happened

While fellow No. 1 seed Duke tried to figure out Cryer, Houston had its hands full with Cooper Flagg.

The national player of the year and presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the coming summer’s NBA draft, Flagg finished with a line befitting his prodigious talent Saturday: 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks, two steals.

Per ESPN, he became the first player to either lead or co-lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, all, in a Final Four game, since steals and blocks because official statistics in 1986.

And Sampson could live with that.

Houston never expected to stop Flagg. There’s a reason no one really has, and an old coach knows that best.

“They had three guys that could get 30,” Sampson said. “We weren’t going to dedicate two or three to Cooper, at the risk of somebody else getting 30. Those other guys had to earn those.”

The Cougars couldn’t double- or triple-team Flagg. They could, though, frustrate him.

Take away his secondary options. Shrink the floor. Fill passing lanes and cut off second chances.

In the game’s dying minutes, Sampson shifted Roberts, now in his sixth and final year of college basketball, onto the most famous player in America. Flagg had the shooting and the passing and the exciting NBA future, but Roberts had years of determination, toughness and resolve earned in offseason runs in the south Texas heat, and Sampson’s demanding practices, and remarkable success and, yes, heartbreaking defeat.

The greatest weapon Roberts could bring to bear against Flagg on Saturday was experience. The knowledge that some shots just go in. That good players make plays, and great players make great ones. Just because you don’t stop him on one possession doesn’t mean you won’t stop him on another.

Make him uncomfortable, and wear him down. You never know when he might crack.

“We watch a lot of film where if guys are guarding him, they back up and let him make passes and be comfortable,” Roberts said. “The biggest thing was to crowd him, make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

It happened the way these things tend to — slowly, and then all at once.

Cryer kept making tough shots. Emanuel Sharp joined the party, with 12 second-half points.

In the same frame, Houston started punishing Duke on the boards. Eventually 18 offensive rebounds turned into 19 second-chance points. Six-point runs became nine-point runs. Three-minute scoring droughts became four.

With 8:17 left in the second half, Duke led 59-45. The Blue Devils would score eight points from there on in. They made just one field goal in the last 10½ minutes.

“Even when they were up 14, I thought we could play better,” Sampson said. “I was imploring our kids, ‘Just stay with it. Stay with it.’”

How Houston’s comeback ended

That was the slowly. The all at once came after Joseph Tugler gave away a one-shot technical foul for swiping a ball while it was still in the inbounder’s hands.

Normally, Sampson would remove a player who’d committed a technical. But he knows Tugler like he knows so many of his players — Houston has fewer than the average number of transfers — and he knew Tugler’s mistake was “born out of effort.”

Kon Knueppel made the technical free throw to push the lead to six. Then Tugler repaid his coach’s faith by blocking Knueppel on Duke’s ensuing possession, that block leading to a runout and Sharp’s 3-pointer in transition.

Sampson loves these moments. He calls them “unscripted plays,” random outcomes that aren’t about running a predetermined set but letting the flow of the game and the instincts he’s built in his players dictate decisions.

“We score more unscripted points than we do off of set plays,” he said afterward. “Most people look at that and say well, we’re not pretty. This ain’t a beauty contest. If it was a beauty contest, we shouldn’t have showed up. But most people get wowed by the beauty, and sometimes, that old mare over there, she knows how to navigate a basketball court for 40 minutes.”

As the clock approached the 40th minute Saturday, Cougar fans made the Alamodome a bear pit. Duke turned the ball over on the inbounds pass immediately following Sharp’s 3, and Tugler paid his coach back again when he slammed home a tip dunk off Mylik Wilson’s miss.

Waves of Devil blue watched in nervous silence, as Tyrese Proctor missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Roberts grabbed the rebound. Flagg was whistled for a foul. Harsh? Perhaps. But nobody’s giving it back.

On his way to the free-throw line, Roberts was stopped by starting point guard Milos Uzan.

“I told him, ‘Bro, you do this every day,’” Uzan said, “‘so go knock ‘em down.’”

Roberts hit one, then the other. Then he finished the jump tightly contesting Flagg’s turnaround 12-footer inside the lane, which fell short. Wilson snatched the rebound, the ball found Cryer and Duke fouled him.

Then something remarkable happened: The arena went quiet.

Houston fans didn’t want to put their player off. And Duke fans were so astonished by the totality of the collapse they watched in a stunned silence.

He made both. The Blue Devils couldn’t get the ball in cleanly. And it was done.

In the aftermath outside a joyous locker room, NCAA officials hauled away a large poster bracket with the HOUSTON placard slapped haphazardly onto it at a strange angle.

There were more important things Saturday night. No one was worried about looking pretty.

This program has known some heartbreak: Seven Final Fours, two national championship game appearances, no titles. One of the most famous upsets in NCAA Tournament history — North Carolina State’s famous last-second slam-dunk win over Guy Lewis’ Phi Slama Jama team in 1983 — still hangs on Houston’s shoulders.

Not this night.

Florida waits on Monday. The Gators are playing as well as anyone. They dispatched No. 1 overall seed Auburn with a rousing second half Saturday, and Walter Clayton Jr. is scoring the ball as dangerously as anyone in the country.

That won’t bother Houston. Nothing does. And on the evidence of Saturday night, nothing will.

“I’m telling you: It’s a special team. We’ve all got so much belief in each other,” Uzan said. “We’re gonna keep fighting ‘til the end.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on X: @ZachOsterman.

SAN ANTONIO – A State Department ruling announced Saturday could affect star Duke basketball player Khaman Maluach, the Blue Devils’ starting center.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on social media he is ‘taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders.’ Maluach was born in South Sudan and committed to Duke in March of last year. Saturday’s loss to Houston concluded his freshman season.

Rubio attributed the decision to “the failure of South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner.”

Contacted by USA TODAY Saturday night, a State Department spokesperson said that the decision would “impact all those who have a U.S. visa in a South Sudanese passport and anyone with a South Sudanese passport who is applying for a U.S. visa.

“We will provide further information and instructions to affected visa holders and applicants as it is available,” the spokesperson said.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on X: @ZachOsterman.

The national championship game in the men’s NCAA Tournament is set. Will it be Houston or Florida cutting down the nets?

It was a spectacular night on Saturday in San Antonio. Neither Final Four matchup disappointed as Florida used a strong second half to take down top overall seed Auburn, while Houston pulled off an incredible late comeback to stun Duke in dramatic fashion.

After 68 teams started the NCAA Tournament three weeks ago, we are now down to two with the Gators and Cougars playing for the national championship Monday. Both teams have proved they are the best teams in college basketball, but only one will have it’s one shining moment.

Florida vs. Houston national championship odds

According to betMGM, as of Sunday morning.

Moneyline: Florida (-1.5)
Spread: Florida (-120); Houston (+100)
Over/under: 141.5

Florida vs. Houston national championship picks, predictions

Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY: Houston beats Florida

Watch Florida vs. Houston in title game on Fubo

How to watch Florida vs. Houston national championship game

Game Day: Monday, April 7, 2025
Game Time: 8:50 p.m. ET
Location: Alamodome in San Antonio
TV Channel: CBS
Live Stream: Fubo

The Houston Cougars are headed back to the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game for the first time since 1984.

Houston rallied in the second half to put away Duke and secure the 70-67 Final Four victory.

The Cougars are still in search of their first national title, reaching the title game in 1983 and 1984 before finishing as runner-ups. If Houston were to win the title, Kelvin Sampson would become the oldest coach to win the sport’s top prize.

L.J. Cryer had 26 points and five rebounds in Houston’s victory. J’Wan Roberts finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.

Here’s what others had to say about the game.

Houston vs. Duke: Final Four reaction to Cougars comeback

Geno Auriemma did not let a Final Four victory distract him from his grievances with the NCAA’s format for the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament.

As he has in the past week, the UConn women’s basketball coach blasted the NCAA for travel schedule and gender discrepancy when it comes to the tournaments. Auriemma also called out the NCAA for not caring enough about the student athletes or listening to the coaches.

The Huskies earned a No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament and had to travel thousands of miles to Spokane, Washington, for the Sweet 16 and Elite. Following Monday’s 9:30 p.m. tipoff, UConn flew directly from Spokane to Tampa Bay for the Final Four the next morning.

In all, UConn has made two cross-country trips and has played four games in the last nine days. Meanwhile, on the men’s side, a few teams will have played four games over 13 days.

‘Yeah, we finished Monday night and we play Friday,’ Auriemma said to a media scrum following his press conference. ‘The guys finish Sunday and they play Saturday. But we’re in this for the student-athletes. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. You’re in it for everything but the student athletes.’

Despite the excitement of returning to the national championship game after UConn dominantly beat UCLA 85-51, Auriemma continued to let his frustration out about the NCAA Tournament. He has not shied away from making comments about the format this week.

One of his biggest gripes is the fact that the men’s tournament has four regional sites, while the women’s have just two.

‘They come on your campus all the time and ask you, ‘You have any suggestions?’ and then they leave, and nothing changes,’ Auriemma said of the organizers of the NCAA Tournament.

Geno Auriemma says two regional sites comes down to money

Back in 2023, the NCAA changed the format for the women’s tournament to have two host sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. This year, the regional sites were in Spokane and Birmingham, Alabama.

Originally, the NCAA said the hope would be to draw more fans to the regional sites, however, Auriemma disagrees that the two regional sites accomplish that goal.

‘So what you’re saying when you have two regions is you don’t care if half the country can’t get to a game,’ Auriemma said. ‘Basically, that’s what you’re saying. But yeah, you want to grow the game. I mean, come on, it makes no sense. But if you ever had an administrator that ever coached or ever played in a Final Four or regional, and you realize what the limitations are in one gym with eight (teams), right? Yeah, but they don’t think that way. They don’t think that way.

‘So, you know, it’s up to us as coaches. Don’t ask our opinion. If you’re going to dismiss it, at least give it some thought. And (NCAA President Charlie Baker) probably thinks it’s not a big deal that you fly 3,000 miles get here Tuesday night, when the team you’re playing against has been home already for 36 hours. They probably think that’s not a big deal either. So then, what are we trying to say? ‘But we’re in, we’re in this for the student athletes.’ Really? That’s interesting.’

Auriemma said the decision for two regionals boils down to just one major reason at the end of the day.

‘You know why they have two regions?’ Auriemma asked. ‘So they can cut costs. So they want to do it on the cheap, and then say how much money we’re making. ‘Isn’t the NCAA great look at the new TV package we got.’ And you know how much money we’re making yet? Because we’re short-changing the kids, right, and giving them that best experience.

Geno Auriemma on women’s vs men’s tournament

Auriemma ended with a mic drop comment, saying that the women’s tournament ‘experience sucks compared to the men’s experience.’ He blamed the people in charge, saying the people running the women’s side are not ‘true basketball people.’

‘That’s one of the big differences in the way women’s basketball is run today and men’s basketball was run in that you have really true basketball people making basketball decisions on the men’s side, and the only people that know that are schools that have been to multiple men’s and women’s Final Four and can sit there and list for you the differences, not that anybody cares,’ Auriemma said.

‘And listen, this isn’t sour grapes, because I don’t give a godd— where we play, when we play, who we play, what town, because we’ve done it and we still end up here. So this isn’t about, you know, Geno’s complaining. I’m not complaining about anything. I’m just telling you the student-athletes, their experience sucks compared to the men’s experience.’

Charles Barkley has been a staple of CBS’s television coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament and the Final Four for years, often appearing on location at the semifinals and national championship game.

This year, his trip there was just a little more personal. The NBA legend and former Auburn basketball star got the opportunity to watch his beloved Tigers compete inside the Alamodome in San Antonio Saturday against Florida, with a spot in the NCAA title game on the line.

Unfortunately for Barkley, that only put him in closer proximity to the pain of watching coach Bruce Pearl’s team fall to the Gators 79-73 in a game that Auburn led by eight at halftime. While sporting his school’s colors, with a blue three-piece suit and an orange tie, Barkley’s various anguished expressions were caught by CBS cameras over the course of the game.

Here’s a look at various shots of Barkley during Auburn’s loss.

“The best team won,” Barkley said on the CBS broadcast after the game. “Our guys played valiantly. It was a heck of a game. I’m so proud of our team and coach Pearl and those kids. I’m disappointed, but Florida was the better team.”

There is some good news for Barkley, though. Even though his team’s dreams of its first national championship have been extinguished, he gets to spend the next three days in San Antonio, a city of which he’s famously fond.

Anthony was a 10-time NBA All-Star, a six-time All-NBA performer, named one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history, and is 10th on the league’s all-time scoring list with 28,289 points.

Bird is one of the all-time great women’s basketball players – a 13-time All-Star, eight-time All-WNBA selection, four-time WNBA champion, two-time NCAA champion, and one of the 25 greatest players in WNBA history. She is the league’s all-time leader in assists (3,234) and No. 8 on the all-time scoring list (6,803).

They were easy choices for inclusion into this year’s Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class, which was announced Saturday in San Antonio.

Also headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame: Dwight Howard, Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, Danny Crawford, the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s team, Billy Donovan and Micky Arison.

Enshrinement weekend is Sept. 5-6, with the enshrinement ceremony taking place at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Here’s a look at the 2025 Basketball Hall of Fame class:

Carmelo Anthony

Over his 19 seasons in the NBA, most notably with the Nuggets and Knicks, Anthony was a prolific shooter and scorer whose 28,289 career points rank 10th all-time. He averaged 22.5 points and led the league in scoring at 28.7 points per game in 2012-13. Anthony’s 37 points against Nigeria at the 2012 London Olympics remain a single-game record for the U.S. men’s national team.

‘I keep trying to come up with things to say for these moments and there’s nothing that I can say that’s actually going to express the way that I feel or the way that I’m just trying to take this moment in,’ Anthony said. ‘To be sitting here as an inductee of the ’25 Hall of Fame, not just as an individual but also as a team, 2008 USA Team member, it’s a lot to put into perspective. You get the call about coming to be entered into the Hall of Fame for what you’ve done for your career and as an individual and what you’ve brought to this game of basketball.’

2008 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team

Known as the ‘Redeem Team,’ the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team swept through its schedule with an 8-0 record at the Beijing Summer Games with an average margin of victory of 27.9 points per game. After a disappointing bronze-medal effort at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski helped re-energize the U.S. men’s national team, which has now won five consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Dwight Howard

Known as a dominant presence in the paint, Howard was a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, winning the award in consecutive seasons (2009-11). Howard ranks 10th in NBA history in rebounds (14,627) and 13th in blocks (2,228). He made the All-Star and All-NBA teams eight times and won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. He averaged 15.7 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks.

‘This is such an amazing honor,’ Howard said. ‘I’ve been playing the game of basketball my whole entire life. To make it to heaven, this is the only way I can describe it, it’s such a beautiful thing. This is what you dream for. It’s what you sit at home and shoot basketball all day and all night for, just to make it to basketball heaven.

‘I’m just overwhelmed with joy, gratitude, all the emotions, every one. The words cannot describe how this moment feels just to be up on this stage to represent my family, to represent my friends, all the people who have went along with this journey with me – the good, the bad and the ugly. It has all led to being up in the Hall of Fame.’

Sue Bird

Known as a pioneer and one of the greatest point guards of all time, Bird is a four-time WNBA champion and a league record 13-time All-Star who played all 21 seasons with the Seattle Storm. She is the all-time leader in wins (333), games played (580), assists (3,234), and minutes (18,079).

Maya Moore

She played just eight seasons in the WNBA before she devoted her time to social justice reform, but Moore is a six-time All-Star and four-time champion. She averaged 23.9 points per game in 2014, leading the league, and propelling her to the 2014 WNBA Most Valuable Player award.

‘Obviously well deserved. Two of the greatest to ever play the game,’ UConn star Paige Bueckers said of Bird and Moore. ‘Growing up in Minnesota … Maya Moore was my everything. That whole dynasty and whole team. Those are shoes, both of theirs, that I aspire to fill.’

Billy Donovan

Although his record in the NBA hasn’t been as prolific as it was in college, Donovan’s two consecutive national championships with the Florida Gators (2006 and 2007) elevated the program to previously uncharted territory; they remain the only national titles the Gators have won in men’s basketball. Donovan, who is the coach of the Chicago Bulls, won at least 30 games three times with Florida, including 36 victories in 2013-14.

‘I’ve been fortunate to coach a lot of great players, guys that were committed to the game, to winning, and I was really, really blessed to have so many great coaches and people around me for such a long period of time,’ Donovan said. ‘I’m thankful. I’m really humbled sitting up here. I think when you get into the game of basketball, at least for me, I never thought about sitting up here one day and being inducted into the Hall of Fame. You did it because you loved it.’

Sylvia Fowles

An eight-time All-Star and the 2017 WNBA Most Valuable Player, Fowles is also a four-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2011, 2013, 2016, 2021).

Danny Crawford

He was an NBA official for 32 seasons (1985-2017) and officiated more than 2,000 regular-season games, 300 postseason games and was appointed to officiate at least one NBA Finals game in 23 consecutive seasons.

Micky Arison

He bought the Miami Heat in 1995 and has ushered in a period of stability and success, overseeing three NBA championships (2006, 2012, 2013) and seven Eastern Conference championships.

“I am deeply honored to be joining Heat AT greats Alonzo Mourning, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Shaquille O’Neal, Ray Allen, Tim Hardaway, Gary Payton and of course my dear friend Pat Riley in the Basketball Hall of Fame,” Arison said in a statement. “When my father Ted Arison brought the Heat to Miami almost 40 years ago, he did not do so for accolades. He did it because he thought it was best for Miami. Madeleine, Nick, Kelly and I have been the proud stewards of that vision and are so proud of what the Heat mean both in our community and to fans around the world. For some, this is an individual honor. But for me, this speaks to what our entire Heat family – players, coaches, staff and fans – have built together.’