On Saturday, eight individuals and one team achieved basketball immortality. The 2026 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class featured Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw, the USA women’s 1996 Olympic gold medal squad, Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike D’Antoni (coach, contributor), Mark Few (coach), Doc Rivers and Joey Crawford (referee). Each of their induction stories was as distinct as the roles they played to grow the game.

Here are some of the best moments from Saturday’s induction ceremony.

Chamique Holdsclaw

Draft: 1999 first-round pick (No. 1 pick by Washington Mystics)

Career highlights: Six-time WNBA All-Star, led Tennessee to three straight NCAA titles (1996-98), two-time College Player of the Year, 1999 WNBA Rookie of the Year, 2002 WNBA scoring champion, 2000 Olympic gold medalist

From the speech: Having grown up in New York, Holdsclaw shared memories of the support she received from guys she shared courts with, including a fellow future basketball All-Star from her stomping grounds.

Chamique Holdsclaw HOF speech: “Before all of this there was Astoria Houses in Queens NY…When I was growing up girls were not allowed to play…but those young men saw something in me, advocated for me, and made sure I had a place on that court…I will never forget Ron Ron (Metta… pic.twitter.com/CuVA5dQupv

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) August 16, 2026

“If anyone tries to hurt her, I’ma knock y’all out,” she recalled Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Ron Artest, saying back in their days playing together. Throughout her speech, she thanked her wife, family and friends for supporting her through the ups and downs of her legendary career, which she says was influenced by fellow New Yorker Lamar Odom.

Mike D’Antoni

NBA coaching career span: First season 1997-98; final season 2020-21

Career highlights: Two-time NBA Coach of the Year (2005, 2017), ranks No. 22 in NBA history with 672 wins as head coach, assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 2012 USA Olympic team, named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008

From the speech: D’Antoni deferred his success to the family, friends, players and executives who trusted his vision for changing basketball. Throughout his career, D’Antoni wanted to increase pace and possessions while prioritizing long-range shooting. Over the decades, his vision helped the likes of Stoudemire, Steve Nash and James Harden establish era-defining legacies. But even when recognizing the opportunities he gave players such as Jeremy Lin, D’Antoni still passed the rock when it came to claiming credit for Linsanity.

“Jeremy — he was on a 10-day contract and close to being released, but my assistants kept telling me, ‘Just give him a chance.’ Boy, were they right,” he said. “Jeremy gave New York, and all of us, the ride of our lives.”

Doc Rivers

Coaching career span: 1999-2026

Career highlights: Sixth in NBA history with 1,180 wins as head coach, ranks No. 4 all-time with 114 career playoff wins, led Boston Celtics to two NBA Finals appearances (2010, 2008), won 2008 NBA title, NBA Coach of the Year in 2000, named among 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA history

From the speech: Welcomed by Boston’s big three of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, Rivers started his speech lost for words, joking that his patented voice was “already raspy” after “coaching robbed it from me.” He reflected on growing up in Maywood, Ill., and attending Proviso East High, which produced 12 NBA players. Despite enough accolades to make anyone proud, Rivers recalled that beating his brother Grady was his proudest moment as a hooper. An emotional Rivers said his older brother was the first person he called after learning of his Hall of Fame nod.

Elena Delle Donne

WNBA career span: 2013 first-round pick (No. 2 pick by Chicago Sky)

Career highlights: Two-time WNBA MVP (2019, 2015), led Mystics to first WNBA title (2019), first WNBA player with 50/40/90 season, seven-time WNBA All-Star, four-time All-WNBA First Team, 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year, 2016 Olympic gold medalist with Team USA

“Having you as my vet helped his once very nervous rookie find her footing.” 🥺

Elena Delle Donne to her former teammate Sylvia Fowles during her Hall of Fame speech ❤️ pic.twitter.com/kpdYbKFmN4

— espnW (@espnW) August 16, 2026

From the speech: One of the best shooters in WNBA history, Delle Donne started her speech by noting the presence of comedian Larry David and said she hoped to do a “prettay, prettay” good job. Throughout, Delle Donne shared gratitude for the support of her wife, Amanda; Sylvia Fowles, who was the first veteran to help her while she adjusted to the pros; and her father, who introduced her to basketball drills using a ladder (which they named Oscar) that mimicked defenders and showed how to use an oven mitt to hone her shooting follow-through.

Candace Parker

WNBA draft: 2008 first-round pick (No. 1 by Los Angeles Sparks)

Career highlights: Three-time WNBA champion, two-time WNBA MVP, 2016 WNBA Finals MVP, 2020 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, seven-time WNBA All-Star and All-WNBA First Team selection, two-time Olympic gold medalist.

From the speech: An emotional Parker passed a basketball throughout her speech, dishing to her brother, Anthony, Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade and Cheryl Miller. Her gratitude extended to her children, former teammates and coaches who helped her establish one of basketball’s most notable careers, highlighted by her being the only WNBA player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year. While walking into hoops heaven, Parker talked to a basketball about the places they’ve journeyed together.

“We did a lot together. We dunked on UConn at UConn. We had our own signature shoe. We were the first woman to grace the cover of 2K. We won at every level for every team we ever played for. And now, we stand on the podium as first-ballot Hall of Famers.”

Amar’e Stoudemire

NBA Draft: 2002 first-round pick (No. 9 pick by Phoenix Suns)

Career highlights: Six-time NBA All-Star, five-time All-NBA selection, 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year.

From the speech: Stoudemire thanked God and looked back on a childhood in which he routinely obeyed his mother as he sought a basketball career to lift his family out of poverty. It started in Lake Worth, Fla., where he and his father watched a game starring his cousin that fueled his hoops fire. Around that time, the Orlando Magic established a junior program for developing players that helped Stoudemire, whose nickname was STAT (“Standing Tall And Talented”), establish himself as one of the best forwards of his era and best dunkers in NBA history.

1996 women’s national team

Highlights: Went 8-0 (winning by an average of 28.6 points per game), helped establish the launch of the WNBA, now in its 30th season.

From the speech: Hall of Famers Teresa Edwards, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Rebecca Lobo and coach Tara VanDerveer reflected on the value of helping establish women’s basketball by winning gold on U.S. soil. To this day, Edwards says playing for the 1996 squad was like nothing else she has experienced, calling it “the greatest team I’ve ever played on.”

“I would put us up against anyone,” she said.

VanDerveer said the 1996 squad occasionally watches other national teams and quips in group chats about being able to beat them, a testament to the “30-year friendships” established by their historic run.

“It’s the highest honor, I believe, of our careers,” Leslie said. “We’re so thankful that the WNBA, the late, great David Stern, Adam Silver understood we had an opportunity for women’s professional basketball to thrive here in our country, and we’re so proud of where we are today.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Over the last two months, the question about Joey Logano’s NASCAR season has suddenly gone from “Will he miss the Chase?” to “Can he win the championship?”

The way Logano looked at Richmond Raceway, it would seem foolish to count him out.

Logano’s remarkable midseason turnaround continued in a major way on Saturday night as the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion put an exclamation mark on his resurgence, winning the race and skyrocketing to ninth in the points standings.

Here comes Joey! 📢@joeylogano beats @chasebriscoe to the line and wins for the third time at @RichmondRaceway! pic.twitter.com/y1fHN5MRNP

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 16, 2026

How much of a rise is that? Just six races ago at Sonoma Raceway, Logano was 20th in points. At the time, it seemed likely Logano wouldn’t even make the 16-driver postseason field in NASCAR’s first year after scrapping the old playoff format, in which Logano won all three of his Cup titles.

Well, he’s back. And now he has two more regular season races to move up the standings even further.

“Don’t let the boys get hot!” he said on the frontstretch after the race. “We’re pretty strong right now.”

That’s an understatement, particularly over the last four races. Logano won the North Wilkesboro Speedway short track race on July 19, then backed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

Logano finished 14th last week at Iowa, but only because his team had a disastrous pit stop that cost him what seemed like a sure top-five finish (if not the win). Now Logano is back in victory lane again, and rounding into form just in time.

Of his five top-five finishes this season, three have come in the last four races. Now there’s virtually no mathematical chance Logano will miss the Chase field; he’s 142 points ahead of the cutoff line with two races remaining. The bigger question is how far he can rise.

“We’re getting the points we need,” Logano said.

Logano’s Team Penske teammates were also strong on a short track once again, with Austin Cindric getting a crucial third-place finish to boost his Chase hopes, Ryan Blaney leading 88 laps before fading to 13th, and affiliate car Josh Berry getting back-to-back top-10 finishes.

Cindric had perhaps the overall performance of the night. He had a highly disappointing race at Iowa last week and was just 29 points above the cutoff line entering Richmond.

But his third-place finish at Richmond, combined with a pair of fourth-place stage results, boosted him to 57 points above the cut with two races remaining.

“This was the kick in the a— this team needed, man,” Cindric said.

Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe was disappointed after losing to Logano by 0.39 seconds. Briscoe had a three-second lead at one point, then started losing his brakes and allowed Logano to catch him just before the final green-flag pit stop.

Briscoe hounded Logano in traffic over the waning laps, but it wasn’t enough. And though you’d think a second-place finish and 171 laps led might come as a nice result for a driver who had never led a lap at Richmond or finished in the top 10 in nine previous starts, he was disappointed.

“It’s weird to be mad running second here,” Briscoe said. “Just to be that close and not get it done is still frustrating. Just wasn’t able to seal the deal there at the end.”

Meanwhile, the other big winner of the night was Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen, who secured a 14th-place finish to leave Richmond with a 50-point advantage over Ryan Preece for the final Chase spot.

Preece, a short track ace, was expected to make up ground at Richmond. Instead, he lost ground with a disappointing 17th-place finish and heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in dire need of some major points before the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway in two weeks.

Austin Dillon, who had won the previous two Richmond races, was a surprising non-factor on Saturday night and finished 19th.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Gracen Halton isn’t one of those shy, sit-back-and-observe rookies. No, the defensive tackle feels it’s better to be seen and heard.

Halton’s outbursts, in fact, have become a staple of San Francisco 49ers training camp and usually go something like this: He fires off the snap, gains an edge on a guard or center and blows past into the backfield. Then comes the shout of success, the roar of victory, the barbaric “Yawp!” — whatever you want to call it — that riles up teammates … and, in one case, an opponent.

After Halton’s first win in one-on-one drills earlier this month, 49ers tackle Trent Williams strolled over to the defensive line’s section to offer a handshake and encouragement. Both are Oklahoma products who met three years ago when Williams was on the sideline for a Sooners game, though Halton doubts the veteran tackle remembers the encounter.

“I was one of the guys that said what’s up to him,” Halton said. “I was dang starstruck.”

Williams certainly knows his name now.

“Obviously, I’m a little biased,” he said when asked about Halton, one of the standouts in Thursday’s preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans. “But I think the world has seen what he has to offer — very explosive, short-area quickness, really powerful. Puts you in the mind of D.J. Jones a little bit.”

Jones, who plays for the Denver Broncos, spent his first five seasons in San Francisco and became a locker-room favorite. He and Halton have a similar profile: they’re bowling ball-shaped with tremendous spring at the snap. Halton, in fact, ran his 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine in a tight-end-like 4.82 seconds — impressive for someone who weighs nearly 300 pounds.

He showed that explosion on back-to-back plays Thursday against the Titans, sacking quarterback Cam Ward on one snap (the play was wiped out because of a penalty) and then stopping tailback Tyjae Spears for a loss on the next.

Halton feels he’s making up for lost time.

He hyperextended his knee on the first day of training camp and missed the initial week of practice. He didn’t exactly ease his way back into the mix when he returned, making plays in both one-on-one and 11-on-11 situations and letting everyone know about it.

“That’s what I like to do,” he said. “I imagine myself as a lion going out to get the gazelle. So when I do those one-on-ones, my mindset is, I’m going off to hunt.”

Odds & ends

• Receivers Mike Evans (quadriceps strain) and Jacob Cowing (hip flexor) had their most extensive practices since getting injured early in training camp. Cowing had perhaps the offensive highlight of the day when he came down with a nicely thrown over-the-shoulder deep ball from quarterback Mac Jones during a move-the-ball period. Two plays later, Jones found a sliding Malik Turner for a touchdown that ended practice.

It looked as if Brock Purdy’s move-the-ball session also ended in a touchdown when he connected with tight end Luke Farrell in the corner of the end zone. However, the coaches ruled that Osa Odighizuwa had “sacked” Purdy on the play, so the offense had to run it again. The next snap, Purdy’s attempt to tight end Jake Tonges fell incomplete.

Purdy was 7 of 14 in team situations. Jones was 11 of 15 with an interception (by rookie Jalen Stroman) on a throw over the middle to Demarcus Robinson. Adrian Martinez was 6 of 7. Kurtis Rourke, who suffered a rib injury in Thursday’s preseason opener, watched practice in a hooded sweatshirt. The 49ers did not give an update on his injury.

• Odighizuwa was prominent Saturday, finishing with at least two would-be sacks and also flushing Purdy from the pocket on another play. That may have been because rookie Carver Willis lined up at left guard with the first-string offensive line for half the practice, his first snaps with that unit. He alternated series with Connor Colby at left guard. Robert Jones played right guard with the second team.

“It’s a three-man race,” Williams said when asked about the left guard competition. “So may the best man win.”

A fourth candidate, Brett Toth, has not practiced recently due to a concussion.

• Cornerback Jack Jones (hand) and safety Marques Sigle (oblique) took part in Saturday’s practice after both left Thursday’s game. Jones even forced and recovered a fumble.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw didn’t practice, although he was in uniform and doesn’t appear to be dealing with anything serious. As was the case Thursday, rookie Jaden Dugger lined up at Greenlaw’s usual spot at weakside linebacker. Dugger played weakside when the Titans used three wide receivers Thursday and flipped to strongside — what the 49ers now call the “fever” position — when Tennessee was in traditional personnel.

• Tuesday’s upcoming joint practice with the Los Angeles Chargers, which seemed to be in jeopardy when the 49ers’ injury total reached 20 a week ago, now appears locked in. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said he’s looking for a “more composed practice” from his defense after the one against the Titans was filled with scuffles and stoppages. The 49ers and Chargers will scrimmage at the Chargers’ facility, then meet on Thursday at SoFi Stadium.

• Injured running backs Jordan James (rib), Kaelon Black (adductor) and Isaac Guerendo (pectoral) worked out next to one another on a side field as practice got underway. None are expected to take part in the practice and game against the Chargers, but the Aug. 27 preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders seems possible.

• Rookie tight end Khalil Dinkins tried out for the 49ers Saturday. Dinkins, a blocking specialist, initially signed with San Francisco as an undrafted free agent in the spring but missed most of organized team activities and was waived with a non-football injury before training camp.

• One more injury update: Kyle Shanahan is no longer wearing a brace on the hand he broke in a July 14 car crash in Palo Alto, Calif.