LOS ANGELES — The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame unveiled its Class of 2026 finalists Wednesday, and the list is filled with players and coaches whose legacies are closely tied to Los Angeles basketball.<\/p>\n
From Staples Center banners to UCLA championships and Clippers playoff runs, Southern California\u2019s imprint is all over this year\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n
Among the most prominent finalists is Candace Parker, the three-time WNBA champion and two-time league MVP who starred for the Los Angeles Sparks and delivered a title to the franchise in 2016. Parker, the only player in WNBA history to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season (2008), remains one of the most influential figures in women\u2019s basketball history.<\/p>\n
Joining her as a first-time finalist is Blake Griffin, the former No. 1 overall pick who helped transform the Los Angeles Clippers into a perennial playoff team. A six-time NBA All-Star and 2011 Rookie of the Year, Griffin\u2019s high-flying style defined the \u201cLob City\u201d era and changed the trajectory of the franchise during his nine seasons in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
On the coaching side, Doc Rivers is a finalist after spending seven seasons guiding the Clippers (2013\u201320). Rivers ranks among the NBA\u2019s all-time leaders in coaching victories and won an NBA championship with Boston in 2008, but his tenure in Los Angeles helped elevate the Clippers into sustained contention.<\/p>\n
Another finalist with strong L.A. roots is Marques Johnson, nominated by the Veterans Committee. Johnson, a five-time NBA All-Star, won the inaugural John Wooden Award in 1977 and led UCLA to the 1975 national championship under John Wooden. He later played three seasons with the Clippers after the franchise relocated to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
High school basketball royalty is also represented. Gary McKnight, who has led Mater Dei High School since 1982, is a North American Committee finalist after compiling more than 1,300 victories and winning 11 California state titles.<\/p>\n
The Women\u2019s Committee ballot also includes the 1996 United States Women\u2019s National Team, whose gold medal run in Atlanta helped launch the WNBA later that year, as well as stars Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw, who spent part of her WNBA career with the Sparks.<\/p>\n
Other notable finalists include longtime NBA referee Joey Crawford, coaches Mark Few and Kelvin Sampson, former NBA All-Stars Amar\u2019e Stoudemire and Buck Williams, and contributor Mike D\u2019Antoni, whose \u201cSeven Seconds or Less\u201d philosophy helped reshape modern offensive basketball.<\/p>\n
The finalists will now move to the Honors Committee for consideration. The Class of 2026 will be announced April 4 during a live broadcast on ESPN2 as part of Final Four weekend. Enshrinement festivities will take place Aug. 14-15 in Springfield, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
For Los Angeles, the ballot serves as a reminder of the region\u2019s enduring impact on the game \u2014 from Pauley Pavilion to Crypto.com Arena and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame unveiled its Class of 2026 finalists Wednesday, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,67,4536],"class_list":{"0":"post-599964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-laclippers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesclippers","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-tst-los-angeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116060860568545180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}