Sylvia Fowles, Beard, Pondexter Enter Women's Basketball Hall of Fame

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Sylvia Fowles this weekend will enter the first of two Halls of Fame when she is inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (WBHOF) June 14 in Knoxville, Tenn. She, Alana Beard and Cappie Pondexter are the three Black females and former WNBAers among the seven-member Class of 2025.

Fowles joins four other Lynx players now in the Hall -- Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore-Irons and Lindsay Whalen. Retired Minneapolis school teacher and coach Tonyus Chavers was inducted in 2018 as a member of the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL), the first U.S. pro women's basketball league (1978 to 1981). She played on the Minnesota Fillies, one of the league's eight original teams.

The 1982 Cheyney State women's basketball team was honored in 2024 as a WBHOF Trailblazer as the first and still only HBCU to play for a women's national championship in 1982.

Affectionately known as "Sweet Syl," Fowles is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time WNBA champion with the Lynx, and two-time Finals MVP. When she retired in 2022, the 6'6" center was the WNBA's all-time leading rebounder.

An eight-time All-Star and four-time Defensive Player of the Year and 2017 league MVP, Fowles averaged a 15-year career double-double, nearly 16 points and 10 rebounds. Eight of those years were with the Lynx.

She also led LSU to four straight Final Fours.

Pokey Chatman, who coached Fowles when both were in Chicago, also coached her at LSU. She first got to know the then-growing teenager while recruiting her for college.

Then, at 15 years old, recalled Chatman, "It was like a blank sheet of paper," said the Seattle Storm associate HC and assistant GM on Fowles. "All she brought to the page was her work ethic and willingness...

"Once she got that in hand," recalled the veteran coach, "oh yeah, she's going to be one of the greatest because she just wants to please, and that's exactly what she did."

Her nickname came naturally. I covered her during her entire Lynx stint and she never turned me down to chat after games, win or lose. No one on the team, or around the league for that matter, ever said a discouraging word about Fowles either.

But on the court, Fowles was anything but sweet. She is seen as perhaps among the last of the real true down-low post players. She rarely wandered away from the paint, although Fowles became more comfortable shooting outside of it as her career wound down.

"I hate to put her in a category because she evolved her game," stressed Chatman, who didn't totally disagree with my assessment of Fowles. "That's a decent place to start.

"But for me, it was like I enjoy watching her game evolve in so many different areas, from being not just a power player but also someone that can put the ball on the floor and get by people, and that's why she's one of the best ever to play the game."

In September, Fowles and Sue Bird will be the only females going into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. They played together on USA and WNBA All-Star teams.

Whalen, a double HOFer herself (Naismith 2022; WBHOF 2023) played with both players on Olympic teams, and she started alongside Fowles on Minnesota's third and fourth league championships. She advised, "[It's] their time to celebrate their careers and what they did and what they established."

Finally, on Fowles, "She impacted basketball so much," concluded Chatman. "She has aspirations and plans, and she's a big family person. And to be able to have that time... I think it was just right for her" to go into the two Halls this year.

There are four players averaging a double-double thus far this WNBA season, all Black: A'ja Wilson, Angel Reese, Kiki Iriafen and Jonquel Jones.