The LSU legend is heading to basketball immortality
On Saturday the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2025 inductees and the list includes former LSU legend Sylvia Fowles.
Fowles will be inducted alongside former NBA players Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, and WNBA legends Sue Bird and Maya Moore. Per ESPN, it’s the first time three women’s players have ever been inducted in one class.
Former Florida men’s basketball head coach Billy Donovan is also part of the 2025 class.
The enshrinement ceremony will be September 5 and 6 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, and the actual Hall of Fame is in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“I don’t think [any] one of us go into this thinking that we’re going to be Hall of Famers,” Fowles said. “You just do your job, and when it’s all said and done, the job is complete and here we are.”
Fowles is right next to former LSU teammate Seimone Augustus as the greatest players in program history. She is the program record holder in rebounds (1,570), blocks (321), career double-doubles (86), games played (144) and postseason games played (20). She was instrumental in LSU making four consecutive Final Fours and was a 3x All-SEC and All-American. In 2008 she was named the SEC’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year and her No. 34 was retired by LSU in 2017.
If Fowles was great in college, she was even greater as a professional. Fowles played 15 seasons for the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx and was the No. 2 overall pick in 2008. Here’s a list of her many, many accolades as a professional:
- 2017 WNBA MVP
- 2x WNBA Champion (2015 & 2017)
- 2x WNBA Finals MVP (2015 & 2017)
- 8x All-Star
- 8x All-WNBA
- 11x All-Defensive Team
- 4x Defensive Player of the Year (2011, ‘13, ‘16, & ‘21)
- W25 Selection (named one of the WNBA’s 25 greatest players in league history)
If all that wasn’t enough, she also won four Olympic Gold Medals for Team USA in 2008, ‘12, ‘16, and ‘20.
Fowles is LSU’s eighth coach or player to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, joining Pete Maravich, Bob Pettit, Shaquille O’Neal, Seimone Augustus, Van Chancellor, Sue Gunter and Kim Mulkey.