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Ten-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony and eight-time All-Star Dwight Howard will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September. On Saturday in San Antonio, the site of the NCAA Men’s Final Four, they were officially announced as members of the 2025 class.
Technically, Anthony and Howard both made the Hall of Fame twice on Saturday. In addition to being inducted individually, the two will be inducted as members of the “Redeem Team,” which won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games. Also on that team: Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and Michael Redd.
“This is it,” Anthony said. “It don’t get no better than this. It don’t get greater than this.”
Anthony said that becoming a Hall of Famer “puts a cap on” all of his accomplishments and makes “the good, the bad and the ugly” that he experienced worthwhile.
“This is the greatest accomplishment that I ever will accomplish,” he said.
Howard hit similar notes. He said he was grateful to have gone through “all these different stages of my career — the good, the bad, all the ups, the downs, being the star, being the role player, being the bench guy, being the guy who’s just there for energy — all that stuff, it really made me into the Hall of Famer I am today.”
Finding out that he had made it was “the best feeling in the world,” Howard said.
“This is such an amazing honor,” he said. “I’ve been playing the game of basketball my whole entire life and to make it to heaven — this is the only way I can describe it — is such a beautiful thing. This is like what you dream for, this is what you sit at home and shoot [the] basketball all day and all night for, just to make it to basketball heaven. And I’m just overwhelmed with joy, gratitude, all the emotions.”
Howard also, strangely, said that, throughout his career, he “had to play all positions, from the point guard to center.” In the NBA, he played center in 99.6% of his minutes, with the other 0.4% coming at power forward (almost entirely in his first two seasons), according to Cleaning The Glass.
The U.S. men’s basketball team won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Getty Images
USA Basketball’s Sean Ford, the director of the men’s national team, said that the members of the 2008 team are “bonded for life.” That particular group was “really a team,” he said, and “they knew what they were representing and they knew what they were trying to do and they did it in a very hard-fought way.”
Ford added: “We’re hoping to get the whole team together in September in Springfield.”
Sue Bird and Maya Moore, both of whom are four-time WNBA champs and two-time NCAA champs (with the UConn Huskies), join Anthony and Howard as first-ballot Hall of Famers. So too does Sylvia Fowles, who held down the paint next to Moore during two of those championship seasons with the Minnesota Lynx.
Fellow first-time Billy Donovan, who coached Florida to back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007 (and now coaches the Chicago Bulls), made the cut, too.
Also in the 2025 class: Danny Crawford, an NBA referee for more than three decades who worked 23 consecutive NBA Finals, and Micky Arison, the owner of the Miami Heat since 1995, during which time the team has won three championships.
Anthony is not only one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, he is one of the most accomplished FIBA players ever and he led Syracuse to an NCAA title during his lone college season. He made six All-NBA teams, led the league in scoring in 2013 and was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. He spent the first seven-and-a-half seasons of his 19-year NBA career with the Denver Nuggets and six-and-a-half seasons with the New York Knicks. As a member of Team USA, Anthony won three Olympic gold medals, and Kevin Durant is the only player who has scored more points for the United States men’s Olympic team.
Howard is one of the most dominant defenders and rebounders the NBA has ever seen, and during his prime with the Orlando Magic he made five straight All-NBA First Teams, won three straight Defensive Player of the Year awards and made five straight All-Defensive teams. Howard led the league in rebounding five times, led the league in blocks twice and won an NBA title as a role player with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. He played in the league for 18 seasons.
Bird spent 21 seasons with the Seattle Storm and made a record 13 All-Star teams. She made eight all-WNBA teams and is the league’s all-time leader in wins, games played, assists and minutes. She led the league in assists three times. With Team USA, she won five gold medals at the Olympics and four gold medals at the FIBA World Cup.
Moore spent seven seasons with the Lynx, then retired to focus on advocating for reforming the United States’ criminal justice system. She won Rookie of the Year in 2011, won Finals MVP in 2013, won MVP (and led the league in scoring) in 2014, made six All-Star teams and made seven All-WNBA teams. With Team USA, she won two gold medals at the Olympics and two gold medals at the FIBA World Cup.
