U.S. Olympic gold medalist coach and legendary Stanford University head coach Tara VanDerveer, was announced Tuesday among 12 basketball icons selected for the FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
The star-studded 2020 FIBA Hall of Fame Class also features FIBA Women’s EuroBasket winner Isabelle Fijalkowski (France); FIBA Basketball World Cup 1967 leading scorer Mieczyslaw Lopatka (Poland); 2004 Olympic gold-medal winning coach Ruben Magnano (Argentina); Canadian national team member and two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash (Canada); four-time FIBA Women’s EuroBasket bronze medalist Agnes Nemeth (Hungary); Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Modestas Paulauskas (Lithuania); 2002 FIBA World Cup gold-medal winning coach Svetislav Pesic (Serbia); nine-time Japanese League champion Kenichi Sako (Japan); FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup runner-up Park Shin-ja (South Korea); 1988 Olympic gold medalist Alexander Volkov (Ukraine); and world champion, Olympic silver medalist and two-time FIBA EuroBasket winner Jure Zdovc (Slovenia).
The Class of 2020, which was announced Tuesday due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be enshrined into the FIBA Hall of Fame during a digital ceremony on June 18, together with the Class of 2021. The FIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2021 will be announced on Thursday, April 1.
The 12 basketball legends come from 12 different countries across four continents and combined to win five Olympic gold medals and five World Cups. They accounted for six Olympic medals, 10 World Cup podium finishes, 20 continental cup medals, 70 national club competition crowns and 11 international club competition titles.
VanDerveer, who leads her 28-2 Stanford team into a NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game versus Louisville on Tuesday evening, currently owns a 1,122-255 record overall coaching NCAA Division I women’s hoops. The all-time winningest coach in women’s college basketball history, VanDerveer has led Stanford to two NCAA championships, 12 NCAA Final Four appearances (through 2020), 23 Pacific-12 Conference regular-season titles, 14 Pac-12 Tournament crowns and 32 trips to the NCAA Tournament. She also guided University of Idaho to one AIAW Tournament appearance and Ohio State University to a pair of NCAA Tournaments.
VanDerveer eight times served as a USA Basketball head coach, beginning in 1986 and concluding at the 1996 Olympic Games. Overall, she led USA teams to four gold medals, one bronze medal and an 88-8 record (.917 winning percentage) as a USA head coach
She first coached with USA Basketball at the 1986 U.S. Olympic Festival, and in 1990, VanDerveer led a USA Select Team to a 2-3 record against teams in Yugoslavia and USSR.
At the 1991 World University Games in Sheffield, England, VanDerveer led the USA to an 8-0 record and gold medal. In 1993, she guided the USA to a 6-1 record and gold medal at the COPABA World Cup Qualifying tournament. The gold-medal finish qualified the USA for the 1994 FIBA World Cup, and she returned to head up the 1994 U.S. team.
VanDerveer and the USA finished with a 7-1 record and bronze medal at the 1994 FIBA World Cup in Sydney, Australia. The USA fell to Brazil in the semifinals but rebounded to beat host Australia in the third-place game. At the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, VanDerveer guided the USA to a 4-0 record and gold medal. The USA topped its opponents by an average of 31.3 points per game.
She served as head coach of the historic 1995-96 USA Women’s National Team that compiled a 52-0 record while playing in seven countries over 10 months and traveling more than 100,000 miles. During that time, she was not able to coach her Stanford team.
VanDerveer guided the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team to a perfect, 8-0 record and gold medal in Atlanta. Drawing an average of 25,320 fans each game, including a record crowd of 33,952 for the USA-Australia semifinal contest, the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team averaged and Olympic record 102.4 points per game and won its eight games by an average margin of victory of 28.8 points per game. Following the Olympics in Atlanta, VanDerveer earned the first USA Basketball National Coach of the Year honor and was the recipient of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s National Coach of the Year Award, while the USA squad earned the USA Basketball and USOPC Team of the Year accolades.
About The FIBA Hall of Fame
The FIBA Hall of Fame is a shrine dedicated to the amazing people who built the foundations of the global sport of basketball since its birth until its accomplished glory of today. It strives to be a genuinely international institution, active in the promotion and remembrance of basketball all over the world and houses the great men and women who were proactive and outstanding in the improvement and development of our sport. Created in 2007, it assembles over 100 outstanding players and coaches from 33 countries and all five continents to date. Its home is the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.
Contributors from the United States previously inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame include international official Jim Bain; Olympic and World Cup medalist player and head coach Anne Donovan; contributor William N. Greim; three-time Olympic head coach Henry “Hank” Iba; two-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Jordan; contributor and past USA Basketball and FIBA president George Killian; Olympic and World Cup medalist Ann Meyers ; Olympic and World Cup gold medalist Cheryl Miller; Olympic and World Cup medalist Alonzo Mourning; Olympic gold medalist head coach Pete Newell; Olympic and World Cup gold medalist Shaquille O’Neal; Olympic gold medalist Hakeem Olajuwon; Olympic gold medalist Oscar Robertson; three-time Olympic medalist and World Cup gold medalist David Robinson; Olympic gold medalist Bill Russell; Olympic gold medalist head coach Dean Smith; contributor Edward S. Steitz ; contributor and longtime NBA commissioner David Stern; Olympic and World Cup medalist player and head coach Pat Summitt; and Olympic and World Cup gold medalist coach Kay Yow.